Deesha
by Atana
Summary: This is a Project A-ko/Superman/Wonder Woman prequel co-written with David Schock, one of the great Supe/Wondy fanfic writers. It features two soldiers from the A-ko series - Napolipolita and Spy D - and is the backstory of how they met.
1. Chapter 1

**DEESHA**

**A Project A-ko/DC Universe Prequel Fanfic **

**By David Schock and Atana**

**David Schock was one of the first great fan authors in the Wonder Woman/Superman fandom. I was a fanfic author in the Project A-ko series (A-ko is the Japanese animation version of the child of Wondy and Supe). We got together online and spent twelve years co-writing some pretty great crossover stories, and this is one of them. It breaks my heart to tell you that my dear David died several years ago, and I miss him to this day. Since at least one fanfic reader out there was gracious enough to "favorite" another one of our stories – "Stranger in the House" – I am pleased to dust off this old beauty for your reading pleasure. I can only hope that David knows that his stories are still read and enjoyed and that his writing legacy lives on!**

**XXXXXXX**

**CHAPTER 1: ABDUCTION**

**The Cygnan winter had begun early. Its seasons were similar - but not quite the same - as Earth's, due to Alpha Cygni's 32-degree tilted axis. **

**It had snowed heavily the night before. And now, right before the chill dawn, the slumber of those who rested at the CygniCity Space Academy was shattered by shouts and screaming.**

**"NO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO, YOU BITCH!" shrieked a cadet by the name of Tarim Chitai. She whipped around to bite the hand of her captor - a seven-foot-tall Shakanar shock trooper with the improbable name of Venus - and instead got a bloody lip for her trouble.**

**"Watch your mouth, kid," Venus growled. "And welcome to the wonderful world of bionic body armor."**

**Right behind them came another struggling cadet, also obviously being taken against her will. This girl was crying rather than cursing, an action which caused her own captor to sneer with disdain. **

**"Suck it up, baby. You're our girl now," the orange-haired, blue-skinned shock trooper snarled. "Off to Mur Sejanus. You're going to love it there. I guarantee - anybody you can run down, catch, and kill, you can eat!" **

**The girl responded to this prospect by calling for her mama, which did her no good since her mama lived the Terran equivalent of three hundred miles from CygniCity. Besides, a Shakanar didn't believe in mothers or family, since the only family she would ever have or need would be her Shakanar Sisters themselves.**

**But another pair of ears had heard her cry. **

**Springing out of her bed in the school infirmary, Aysheia Lisia Napolipolita raced to the window. Her warm breath instantly fogged the ice-cold klarsei (a Cygnan invention neither glass nor plastic but something better than either). She scrubbed it with her elbow and looked out upon the horror being played out below her. **

**"What are they doing to you, Deesha?" she whispered, then turned and bolted out the door right past the MedAssist who - at least up until now - had been snoring quietly in her chair. **

**The girl's thoughts flew through her head even faster than she raced down the stairs. Deesha had risked herself to defend her last night when Tarim Chitai had dumped that sashit poultice over her face. Apparently, Aysha's recurrent nightmares had been too noisy for her, and this had been both Chitai's cruel revenge and a way of shutting her up. **

**She had been rescued from suffocation - a sensation that had been astonishingly painful, she'd remembered - only because big dumb Deesha had slammed her clenched fists against Chitai's cervical spine, breaking her hold on the green-haired cadet. The other girls had ripped the airtight poultice from Aysha's face, taking quite a lot of skin with it, and had carried her to the infirmary while the two girls engaged in a vicious fight - so vicious, in fact, that the two girls were brought to the attention of the Shakanar "recruiter".**

**Already, Tarim Chitai had earned her seat on the hop ship to Mur Sejanus by her antisocial behavior and the sadistic pleasure she took in tormenting her cadet mates. Of course, the standard screening would only validate her psychopathic bent. Deesha, on the other hand, had earned her trip to this little piece of Avernus by being able to go toe-to-toe with the huge and sadistic Chitai. The fact that six cadets and four instructors couldn't break up the fight between the two big teenagers had only heightened the interest of the Shakanar command. **

**Aysha had heard later that night that both girls would be harshly disciplined. But it was only now that she realized just what that punishment would be. She now knew that both girls were being involuntarily transferred to the dreaded Shakanar War Academy on the northern wasteland known as Mur Sejanus. The CygniCity cadets commonly referred to this institution as "Psycho School". **

**Only girls who were confirmed sociopaths were sent there, to be pumped full of steroids and growth hormones while being trained in methods of torture and brutality which made their CygniCity Sisters recoil in revulsion. With her background, of course, Tarim Chitai would fit right in, without any question. But the thought of the gentle and kindly Deesha sharing such a fate went beyond Aysha's comprehension. **

_**She will suffer for the rest of her life just because she helped me!**_

**She now heard Tarim Chitai's curses, which concerned her not at all. But she also heard Deesha crying, and - despite her own shock and weakness - young Napolipolita now knew that her honor demanded that it was time for her to return the favor. **

**She ran down the steps, first taking three and four at a time until concern for Dee overwhelmed her caution, and instead she started to jump one landing at a stretch. **

**She arrived just in time to see Chitai's well-muscled backside being roughly shoved into the back of a heavily armored transport hopper. Four more of the dreaded Shakanar were doing their best to pull, push, and drag the badly-frightened Deesha into the back of the hop ship with the psychotic Tarim. **

**Napolipolita realized that these grim troopers hadn't been informed of the reason for the involuntary transfer of these two cadets. It was obvious that their only orders had been to convey a couple of "live ones" to Mur Sejanus. If they had known that the two had nearly killed one another the night before, they would have at least added a guard to the deadly mix. Or – in keeping with their savage natures – more likely than not they would have watched gleefully as the two big teenagers tore into one another in the back of the hopper, while they made bets on the outcome.**

**Arriving just in time, Aysha Napolipolita was held back by two of the cadet instructors. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING WITH MY FRIEND?" she screamed at the Shakanar captain.**

**"To Mur Sejanus, where she belongs," was the answer she received.**

**"HELP ME, AYSHA!" was the heart-wrenching cry that came from the big farm girl, her protector and her friend.**

**"She doesn't belong with the rest of those animals," begged Napolipolita, the ice-cold wind stinging her abraded face.**

**"Well, we know better," answered the Shakanar captain, giving the order to proceed with the transfer.**

**Napolipolita let out a sudden cry of rage as she leaped to the defense of her friend, and threw herself on top of the two Shakanar now pinning Deesha's arms behind her back. This was something new to the Shakanar, for no one in her or his right mind would ever be willing to openly attack one of the dreaded shock troopers, let alone two. **

**But courage and loyalty can only take even a seasoned warrior just so far, let alone a cadet barely in her teens, no matter how brave or how loyal she is to her friend. The result was as sudden as it was predictable, with young Napolipolita lying bloody and unconscious on the snow-covered cadet parade ground.**

**At the sight of her friend's red blood staining the white virgin snow, Deesha went wild. She stomped her boot into the instep of the Shakanar who had her arm around her throat. Then, with a sudden twist, Dee broke one of her arms free and sent her elbow crashing into the face of the Shakanar at her side, breaking her nose. With a roar of rage, the big girl began to fight the remaining troopers off, until the Shakanar captain sent the barrel of her sidearm into the back of her head, rendering her comatose in the snow next to her friend. **

**Coming to just in time to see her large friend collapse next to her, Napolipolita threw her arms protectively around her large friend's neck and hugged her close. She did not realize at the time that it would be years before she would ever be able to do it again. **

**Standing over them both, the Shakanar captain smiled as she kicked the unconscious Deesha in the side.**

**"There was no need for that," said Captain Falizia Tiu, who commanded the CygniCity Space Academy.**

**"Keep your comments to yourself, bitch," the Shakanar captain fired back. Ignoring her completely, she then turned to her own second-in-command. "This one has definite possibilities," she grinned, gesturing at the thirteen-year-old Deesha Dakina. "Already, she fights like a true Shakanar!"**

**Her second agreed with her. "Right you are, Captain; she'll make us all proud." She then turned her attention to the slender green-headed girl who was still holding Deesha protectively close to her small bosom. "What about this one, Captain? She might have the makings to become one of our Sisters. She already has the spirit, and fights well - for a shrimp." The two twisted Sisters laughed aloud.**

**"Aye, you're right," the Shakanar captain replied. "Too bad she's so damned small and emotional." She watched the tears run down Napolipolita's face and knew them to be tears of empathy - an emotion she had never experienced in her entire life.**

**"Don't you recognize her?" Captain Tiu snapped, in spite of her cold fear of these women and their ilk. "She's our deceased Commander's daughter. She's suffered enough, witnessing the murder of her mother and three hundred of her crewmembers. Leave her be." Captain Tiu carefully righted the child, having unwrapped her arms from her friend's neck first. **

**As she began to lift her from her cold bed of snow, the Shakanar captain grunted, and then nodded. Even a Shakanar could admire a commander who had fought to the death on behalf of Queen and Nation. With a simple gesture, four of the shock troopers then dragged the unconscious Dee into the back of the hopper. **

**Captain Tiu helped Cadet Napolipolita to her feet. The girl wrenched herself from her gentle grip, and ran toward them with her clenched fists held before her.**

**"I swear, Deesha - I swear that someday I will find and free you from these animals!" screamed the weeping cadet, as she watched the hopper take to the sky and disappear into the darkness of the early morning, not realizing at the time that the two friends would not see one another again for seven long years.**


	2. Chapter 2: Growing up Sad

**CHAPTER 2: GROWING UP SAD**

**The Shakanar War Academy's bureaucracy thrived on backstabbing and dirty tricks, and informing against one's Sisters was both encouraged and rewarded. **

**The cadets were constantly tested, by both planned and unplanned tests. A favorite of the instructors was to take twenty-five would-be Shakanar troops on a training exercise, but to only supply enough food and water for twenty. In this way, they would discover the toughest and most ruthless of the group. And if a few of them died, it was always the weakest among them who fell by the wayside. **

**During her years at Mur Sejanus, Deesha had quickly learned to hide her feelings from everyone. No one was safe. And unlike a true sociopath, who learns at a young age to fake and mimic human emotions, Deesha had to learn instead to hide her true empathy from everyone around her. This was not as easy as it sounded. In fact, it was an extremely difficult thing for her to do. **

**But even at her young age, she also realized that if she wanted to survive, she would have to do her best to blend in. It took time, but Deesha learned that the nail that stood up generally was the one that got hammered down. She made her façade convincing by doing things that would normally turn her stomach, but which she had to do if she wished to live. **

**Two hallmarks of the sociopathic personality so prized by her keepers were selfishness to the exclusion of others' needs (except those of other Shakanar) and a remarkably liberating lack of conscience. It had thrilled her Sisters to inflict cruelty; it had nauseated Deesha and had given her nightmares. Contact with families and former friends had been forbidden as a matter of common practice. By the age of twenty, Deesha Dakina had come to understand that she was caught in a trap, and that there would be no escape for her.**

**Not that she didn't try. The first attempt was less than a week after she arrived. One night she took off across the desert on foot and with no supplies, including food and water. The senior Shakanar instructors (Shakanar never retired; they always died in service and usually at a young age) turned her capture into a training exercise for the senior class. Their reward for capturing the teenager was being allowed to beat her for fifteen wonderful (for them) minutes.**

**As she grew older and bigger, the Shakanar trainers and physicians had also subjected Dee to surgical and hormonal treatments, turning her from a cadet into a living weapon whose very appearance would engender fear in other humans. This had frightened her deeply - not only because she'd lost control of her own destiny, but over her own body as well. **

**There had been no place on Mur Sejanus' high plain for an overwhelmed young woman to go and secretly cry out her fear. Deesha had learned instead to lock her secrets so deeply in her heart that - over time - even she had forgotten most of them. But the memory of her badly traumatized friend's thin face and ragged voice had somehow survived even the most brutal of Shakanar indoctrination.**

**xxxxxxx**

**The great tragedy in Aysha Napolipolita's life had transformed her from a lively and friendly child to a silent and introspective one. Her career path at the CygniCity Space Academy had been shaped by it as surely as the girl herself had been. She had learned there that computers were far trustworthier than people had been, and for that reason they had become like sisters to her. Aysha had also loved machines, and had discovered that the linear and orderly thinking needed to master them helped to ground her. She had spent many hours alone tinkering with them, redesigning this and calibrating that. **

**Napolipolita had been raised on a military ship like a little she-bear, trying since toddler-hood to keep up with the big soldiers who surrounded her. The girl had grown up fierce and wild, strong and athletic, and these women had playfully adopted her as their mascot and had gone out of their way to teach her what they knew. **

**They had nicknamed her Mikvikti Ashiu (Aysha the Little Monkey) and had trained her in the arts of war out of genuine kindliness and affection; consequently, the girl would always associate physical exercise and training with being nurtured. Thus, this aspect of academy training at least had soothed her soul at the same time it had built her young body. Her long legs and agile frame had also made it easier for her to compete and win. The many competitions at the Academy had allowed her to regain a bit of that lost feeling of camaraderie she had once enjoyed with her mother's crew.**

**Cadet Napolipolita had also become an accomplished ship designer and engineer, building living spaces in which Cygnan soldiers would feel secure while carrying out their assigned duties. This propensity was no surprise to anyone, because she had survived the Kirlian attack on her mother's ship tightly crammed in the space cruiser's ventilation ducts. Without a doubt, the near-claustrophobic feel of her designs had been this way because the designer herself felt safe behind desks or in cockpits - or any enclosed space where her back was covered, and where no hidden and unseen enemy could inflict more fear and hurt. **

**She had also mastered the art and science of starship navigation at the Academy. It had given her many soothing hours of gazing at dark screens and small pulses of light, but had deprived her of the opportunity to look instead into the compassionate eyes of other humans. Indeed, all of these activities had impressed her instructors but, unfortunately for her emotional recovery, had done little to assimilate her into normal living. **

**In spite of her years there, the Academy had remained an alien place to her. It did not silently glide through the cold vacuum of space. There were no battles. It had also been strange because everyone who had known her before the massacre was dead. It was upsetting to young Napolipolita to realize that her birthplace and lifelong home was now recycled parts, or scrap lying in the Akariu Rha shipyards. **

**Her Sister cadets were kind, but were reluctant to include her in their routine give-and-take for fear of upsetting her. Each girl's heart went out to her, but none of them knew what to say to a child who had survived so terrible an event. She missed Deesha keenly.**

**She had even borne a little girl during these sad and distracted years, the child of a G'nazian boy she'd had met during the Cygnan equivalent of shore leave. Although she had been forbidden from seeing young Jaspin Myrani again, baby Alia Makita Napolipolita had provided the lonely girl with both someone to love and someone who would love her in turn. **

**Despite her steady progression through officer training, Aysha occasionally lapsed into depressions so deep that she neither ate nor slept. During such times, her baby was tended and she was quietly slipped into the infirmary so that her unconscious self-destruction could be delayed, if not stopped. **

**The CygniCity Space Academy had given the girl a safe place in which to heal, although she healed badly. It had also instilled in Aysheia Lisia Napolipolita's heart the desire to achieve, and the sure knowledge that duty, honor, and loyalty to the Empire meant as much to her as they had to her mother, the late Commander. **

****xxxxxxx****

**That same sense of duty and honor had been instilled in Deesha Dakina at the Shakanar War College. For the clumsy but gentle farm girl, however, loyalty to the Empire had been supplanted by loyalty to other Shakanar. Indeed, this was essential for their survival, since these women were universally feared and hated by other Cygnans, who would have been glad to see the entire murderous pack wiped out.**

**Where the CygniCity cadets might accidentally injure one another in their war games, it was not unheard of for one Shakanar cadet to be grievously injured - indeed, sometimes accidentally killed – by one of her peers. Up until the time when bionic surgery and hormonal implants would augment their chances for survival, these girls were as vulnerable as any. **

**Moreover, "Psycho School" students enjoyed targeting and injuring one another. If a girl was hurt, it was her tough luck. She was injured not because of another's wrongful act, but because of her own vulnerability. Shakanar neither liked vulnerability nor those who were vulnerable. They would seek out such a cadet and torment her without mercy, until she was as brutal and without conscience as they. Unfortunately, Deesha's reticence to kill had been sensed by the other girls early on. **

**And so on this day, the sixteen-year-old girl found herself in a circle formed of her Sister Shakanar recruits. With her in this circle was a huge sadistic nut job named Gree Gorath, who hailed from Drusus IV, one of the terraformed Cygnan colonies. **

**Along with Deesha and Gree there was one other person in the circle, a senior Shakanar instructor with a scarred face and a missing left eye. Her gray hair blew in the wind as she circled the two teenagers while they tore into one another. Whenever one or both of the two girls would slow down or try to end the fight, she would use her seven-foot-long punishment staff to "encourage" the two combatants to fight all the harder.**

**The two big teenagers were already bleeding from numerous cuts and scrapes, not to mention that each of them had one eye all but swollen shut from the other's fist. Now they stood, toe-to-toe, in a test of strength, facing each other with their fingers locked together. Gree was forcing Deesha's arms down until - with a sudden burst of energy - Dee was able to first stop and then bend back Gree Gorath's fingers.**

**Suddenly, Gree sent her knee deep up into Deesha's groin in a vicious knee lift. Dee sank to her knees with a cry of agony as she clutched at herself. Gree giggled gleefully as she took two hand holds in the girl's shaggy mop, lifted her head up, and then sent her knee into poor Deesha's face, breaking her nose and leaving it flat for the rest of her life.**

**As the cheers of her Sister students rang in her ears, Gree Gorath strutted around the fallen Deesha as the old instructor banged the end of her fighting staff into the ground to signal her approval.**

**Deesha was trying to get to her feet, but Gorath put a quick stop to it by kicking the big farm girl in the breast, knocking her across the circle of students, who cheered their approval. After strutting in front of her classmates once more, Gree's attention went back to the injured Deesha.**

**As Dee was just getting back to her knees, Gorath put her arm around the girl's throat and her knee into her back. Deesha made a sickening gurgling sound as the arm around her throat cut off her air supply. She tried using her arms to free herself, but had to stop as Gorath sent three quick and brutal punches into her kidneys.**

**Growing tired of punching her, Gorath stood up behind the big farm girl and, taking hold under her chin, began to pull back and twist. She hoped that if she was fast enough, she could snap the girl's neck before the senior instructor could stop her. But before either the one-eyed old Shakanar or Gorath could act, Deesha sent her own elbow into the groin of her tormentor.**

**As Gorath fell to her knees with all thoughts of murder driven from her mind, Dee then took her by the arm, extending and then twisting it. And as she held it out straight, she sent her own elbow crashing into the joint, breaking the joint in two with a loud and very sickening snap. As her opponent rolled around the ground in agony, Deesha staggered to her feet at last. **

**"FINISH HER! FINISH HER!" came the chorus from the gathered Shakanar. **

**A moment ago they had been cheering for Gorath and now they're cheering for me, thought D. **

**Deesha looked down at Gree as she held up her one good arm and begged, "Mercy, Sister, mercy! Please - no more!"**

**In her time spent with the Shakanar, Dee had learned one thing. Those who never gave mercy were always the ones who were the first to beg for it. Taking hold of her by the hair, Deesha raised her fist and sent it crashing into the face of her one-time opponent, knocking her flat onto her back. She then placed her heel on her throat and held her down as everyone around her called out for her blood. Instead of ending her miserable life, Dee instead took her foot off of her throat. The one-eyed Shakanar screamed at her to finish the contest. **

**"You go to hell," Deesha answered.**

**The senior Shakanar had an answer of her own as she touched a button on her gauntlet, sending a signal to Deesha's punishment belt. The result was that the girl fell once again, convulsing in agony on the ground. **

**"Now will you obey?" asked the instructor.**

**Deesha's answer was to lurch at her tormentor, only to be punished yet again with another wave of pain. Still, Dee did her best to get at her as she crawled on her belly. In doing so, she was driven on not only by the sadistic laughter of the old Shakanar, but that of her classmates as well. **


	3. Chapter 3: Uneasy Adulthood

**CHAPTER 3: UNEASY ADULTHOOD**

**At nineteen, Deesha made another break for her freedom. She was not only better prepared, but she was also bigger and more physically fit, having been subjected to the medical procedures with which all Shakanar cadets had suffered. She also had a far better plan this time; she had sneaked out at night and had stockpiled food and water in the desert surrounding the Shakanar training compound. **

**When she finally made her break, she used every bit of training in survival and infiltration she had been taught. So good was her plan and physical strength that she became the first cadet who came so very close to escaping Mur Sejanus. In fact, Dee had almost reached the outskirts of the nearest Cygnan city. The fact that she almost succeeded made her punishment even worse when she was finally caught. **

**Deesha was sentenced to endure the gauntlet, a hideous test of strength and courage where the victim was forced to walk between two rows of a dozen each of her "Sisters" as they beat her without mercy. The fact that Tarim Chitai made sure she was at the end of the line - where she would have Deesha all to herself when she was at her weakest and most vulnerable -didn't escape either of the young women's notice.**

**Deesha wasn't expected to survive. It was a sad fact that in the long history of the Shakanar, only two other Sisters ever survived making the run, and Deesha wasn't expected to join them. After she had fooled everyone, including herself, by managing to survive, the hardy Dee made a powerful impression upon the Shakanar leadership. Her survival was also a big disappointment to Tarim Chitai, who had failed in finishing off the big farm girl at last.**

**The Shakanar leadership thought a Sister like Deesha might serve them well as their first undercover agent. Her emotions, which they considered a serious weakness, might be exploited to help her blend into a normal society. In addition, they believed that her small size (the Terran equivalent of 6'5", out of the Shakanar mean of from 6'10" to 7' plus) would also help her to avoid detection. She had already proved her resourcefulness by almost making good her escape. It was for these reasons that she was offered special training and a chance for a limited amount of freedom, away from the rest of the Shakanar. **

**After she had graduated with the rest of her class, Deesha Dakina had jumped at the chance to put some distance between herself and the rest of her so-called Sisters.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Upon her graduation from the Academy and the successful completion of her Rite of Passage, Aysha Napolipolita had become part of the search and rescue mission for the Lost Princess. Now Chief Navigator of Her Majesty's Egota Pallas Athena, she had grown into a tall and slender young woman who had already done her duty by producing three fine daughters for the glory of the Empire. **

**Though her face was too sharp-featured to ever be considered beautiful, Aysha's tightly muscled frame had retained the curves of motherhood, filling her out and causing heads to turn when she passed. But even as her career had begun to flourish, Aysha had kept a secret from the scrutiny of others, as surely as D had. **

**She feared that she was straegesh - crazy - and that one day soon, her superiors and friends would find out what went on inside her head and send her away, like they'd sent her friend away.**

**She had experienced the death of the one living human soul she had ever loved, her mother. This shock had been combined with the loss of the only friends she had ever had, the crewmembers of Her Majesty's Delos class Pana Gaia. No one would ever call her Mikvikti Ashiu, not ever again. **

**Together, these great losses had broken her spirit, and the terrible sights and smells of the death vessel had tormented her dreams ever since. For a girl such as little Aysha, who had never spent a single day of her life away from her mother's side, finding her lying dead on the bridge had all but ripped her young soul to shreds. This in itself was understandable. Before she was finally rescued, the then-twelve-year-old girl had also spent three days alone in what had become a floating tomb, with only decaying bodies as company. **

**Even after she was rescued, hope all but died for young Napolipolita when her father, tormented by his own feelings of loss and his own accursed weakness, deserted his post in the Anatolian Space Command as well as his daughter. Aysha's sense of abandonment and isolation only grew worse when her father left her behind after Alia Napolipolita's burial. This one careless act had destroyed any remaining spark of hope for the young girl. The result was that she came to believe that her world had become a dark and dangerous place, which would never stop inflicting pain upon her.**

**It had only made sense that thoughts of suicide had come to occupy her mind on a daily basis. Every disappointment, every fear, and every doubt about herself would trigger even more deliberate thinking and planning about what she had come to believe was her only escape. She kept these shameful thoughts a tightly guarded secret from her superiors, her lovers, her comrades on the Pallas Athena, and, most importantly, from her children. Only her love for them and the thought of ruining her own daughters' lives in much the same way hers had been ruined had stayed her hand. **

**Her only release and comfort from these fears, and the terrible depression that had always followed, had been the sweet and soothing burn of alcohol as it slid down her throat and sent its fire from her belly to enfold each shattered nerve, blot out the memories, and - best of all - numb the pain.**

**By the Goddess, she had loved it so! With this crutch in her hand upon which to lean, she felt fearless and real and part of the lives of normal people whenever she was under its influence. **

**And so it came to be that at the age of twenty, Aysha had learned how to counter thoughts of her death with thoughts of her next drink, which suited the troubled young woman just fine.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Napolipolita now sat on a barstool at the Macedonian Sword, one of her favorite places for losing herself. It had occurred to her recently that she needed to get lost more and more these days. She promptly pushed such thoughts out of her head, and sought instead to occupy it with something - or someone - else. **

**In such situations, it often helped if she concentrated on a congenial fellow drinker, a meaningless sexual adventure, or - if no one interesting was at hand to distract her - a song, a conversation, or even a halfway decent bar fight. If she was bored enough, she might even start one, just to see what would happen. Such was the life of a soldier, no matter from which planet she hailed.**

**She now closed her eyes behind her Leptonian military standard-issue dark shades. Letting go in her taut shoulders, she let the lyrics of the didik-player's song cushion the sharp spaces in her head.**

_**In the moonlight, I felt your heart**_

_**Quiver like a bowstring's pulls**_

_**In the moon's fair light, you looked at me -**_

_**Nobody knows your heart**_

_**When the sun has gone I see you**_

_**Beautiful and haunting, but cold**_

_**Like the blade of a knife, so sharp - so sweet**_

_**Nobody knows your heart**_

_**All of your sorrow, grief, and pain**_

_**Locked away in the forest of the night -**_

_**The secret heart belongs to the world**_

_**Of the things that sigh in the dark -**_

_**Of the things that cry in the dark.**_

**She swiped a black-gloved hand under her shades, almost desperate to hide the tears that slipped from beneath them. **

**_As hard as I try, I cannot stay hidden for long._ **

**The lyrics reminded her of her daughter Alana's father, Hagio Triado Atola, and she blinked hard against the unbidden memory. The handsome Thessalonikan had pretended to love her, and then had unceremoniously dumped her. She had been just emotionally needy enough for this to leave her deeply shaken.**

_**Damn your hide, Atola. Why did you push me away? I loved you - your long silver hair wrapped around my throat - beautiful warm mouth on me - loved you so much - I hate you bastards - ugly, I'm so ugly - people leave me - they know I'm not right in the head - Oh, Madere Misua! - Oh, Mama!**_

**A large tear slid down her sharp nose. It plopped onto the bar and glistened there, like a spilled drink. Thoughts of the calm and soothing peace of death began to intrude themselves like unwanted guests; her brain had yet to be fully numbed by the alcohol that was now her only friend. **

**_No. Stop it._ **

**Napolipolita lifted her head and squared her chin. "Bartender, two more," she barked in her best command voice, and flipped a five-drachmi coin on the bar. The bartender grinned, happy to oblige. These military spaceport drunks kept him in business; if this Cygnan wasn't one already, she soon would be.**

**Napolipolita threw the first drink down her throat, and waited until the bloom of warmth kicked in. **

**_Better,_ she thought. **

**She would nurse the second, or at least try to. Letting her gaze fall upon all that was reflected in the large mirror that faced her - except for herself, of course - she saw a familiar face. **

**_Familiar, yes - but? Wrong, something is wrong –_ **

**In that moment, recognition fell upon her like a heavy hammer. **

**_Deesha -!_ **

**The three Shakanar strode through the bar entrance as if they owned the place. Considering who they were, no one in the place would ever dare dispute their claim - that is, if they had decided to make one. **

**They were not dressed in their usual bio-armor but in the uniforms of newly graduated cadets. Each of them also wore sashes, which told all who cared in which branch they would be serving. The biggest of the three wore the black sash of their religious order, a virulently anti-male segment of the Cybele Cult. A slightly smaller blonde wore the red sash of the Shakanar who served regularly with the Fleet. The smallest (if one could call a woman who stood six and a half feet tall 'small') - and the one who drew Napolipolita's attention - wore a sash that was new to everyone in the Macedonian Sword.**

**As the trio walked to the bar to order a drink, fleet officers and rank-and-file warriors kept their mouths shut, doing their best to ignore their arrival. So universally feared and hated were the Shakanar even among their own people that many of the other patrons stood up and walked out. Others who were braver - or more foolish - would spit on the floor as they passed them, to show their contempt. **

****xxxxxxx****

**These three Shakanar had recently graduated from the War College at Mur Sejanus, and had received the last of their medical treatments. These so- called treatments consisted of the introduction into their bodies of self- reproducing nano-bots. These microscopic robots would be with them the rest of their lives. These tiny mechanical 'droids would see to it that their hosts would continue to produce the massive amount of steroids which would increase their strength and harsh appearance. The nano-bots also ensured continuous production of a growth hormone that would slowly increase their size until they reached their full size for a Shakanar (7'6"). This assumed, of course, that the respective host lived that long. These tiny robots could also repair the massive amounts of internal damage their hosts might receive during their service. This was one of the reasons that it was so hard to kill a Shakanar. **

**The nano-bots had one more duty. It was to ensure the complete sterility of their hosts. Ordinarily, the use of any sort of birth control was against "The Cygnan Way", but the Empire had no wish to see Shakanar breed and produce whole armies of their own heartless kind. A limited number of Shakanar were useful; but an army of them would be a threat not only to everyone around them, but also to the Empire as a whole.**

**Upon graduation, the Shakanar were given a month's pay, and then released to blow off some steam as they celebrated their graduation. They had been ordered to have a reasonable amount of good times, and not to kill anyone unless they were attacked first. This was unlikely since a person would have to be out of her mind to pick a fight with a Shakanar. Rape was forbidden for the Shakanar, be it male or female. Each cadet was told that if she needed a sexual release, she was to make her choice, pay her money, and not to expect any free samples! **

****xxxxxxx****

**The Shakanar had the whole long wooden bar to themselves, the rest of the patrons having wisely moved on - that is, except for one tall officer with green hair, who at the moment was staring at the newest and shortest of the three Shakanar. The three had just finished their drinks, and were ordering another when the officer moved over to them. **

**Napolipolita touched the smallest of the Shakanar on the shoulder and, in a joy-filled voice, said, "Deesha? Is that you?" Aysha was surprised when the woman ignored her, but she was not about to let a little thing like that ruin her reunion with her childhood friend. "Deesha? It's me, Aysha!" She smiled as she added, "I couldn't have changed that much."**

**"Away from me, raldash! (A Shakanar term for all those not Shakanar; also meaning "outsider") I recognize no one named Aysha," Deesha replied, without bothering to look at her one-time friend.**

**"Deesha, please! Talk to me! I'm your friend! The least you can do is look at me," pleaded Napolipolita.**

**Finally turning, Deesha told her, "The only friend a Shakanar can ever want or need is another Shakanar, raldash!" **

**"Deesha, you can't mean that," pleaded Napolipolita. "Do you have any idea what I went through - how I've suffered or what it's cost me to try to free you all these years?"**

**Deesha snarled, "What it cost you? How you suffered?" Suddenly in a rage, Deesha added, "Let me tell you here and now what it really means to suffer, to be cut off from family and friends and turned into a mockery of a woman. Worst of all, you're always alone because deep down you know you don't fit in, and the others around you know the same!" Then to make her point, Deesha used her great strength to push Napolipolita the length of the bar and onto the floor, much to the joy of her two grinning Shakanar Sisters. **

**Looking up from the floor, with tears now ruining her heavy eye shadow, Aysha told her one-time friend, "You've changed, Deesha, and I'm not talking about the way you look. My friend - my big, kind, gentle farm girl - is gone, only to be turned into the very creatures she'd always feared and hated!"**

**Deesha ignored her and went back to her drink and her Sisters, who were busy slapping her on her broad back. Just then, there was a commotion at the door. All eyes in the bar turned to stare at the huge figure that seemed to fill the entrance. **

**The woman blocking the doorway was at least seven feet tall and wore the sash of the Shakanar Security Force. She was Tarim Chitai, and she had just been picked to join the ranks of the Shakanar who were the worst of the worst. These soldiers had been trained to become experts in torture, fear, and assassination. If all feared the Shakanar, even the Shakanar feared these Sisters, the very worst of their kind. **

**She stomped into the bar, pausing only long enough to seize a boy serving drinks. Lifting him off the floor, she kissed him deeply before tossing him halfway across the room in disgust and disappointment. She reached the bar, slammed her huge fist, and demanded a triple. **

**As she was downing the burning liquid, one of the other Shakanar Sisters asked her, "I thought you were going to visit the local House for some company."**

**"I did - even paid for two at a time, and neither one of those two weak- bellied males could get the job done, either alone or working together!" complained Chitai.**

**"It might have helped if they'd crawled into bed with a woman and not an oversized, ugly, psycho bitch!" said a voice from the floor.**

**Looking down, Tarim was at first confused as to why a raldash would dare talk to a member of the Sisterhood in such a manner. Slowly at first, the dim light of recognition appeared in Tarim's eyes as her twisted mind remembered the young cadet she had almost killed. Only she didn't remember it that way. In her mad mind, Napolipolita had cost her a chance at becoming a officer, as well as losing out on all the fun she used to have tormenting her sister cadets at the CygniCity Space Academy.**

**"Well, look who it is," said Tarim. "If it isn't my old friend, Sleeping Beauty! Tell me, dream girl - you still having those dreams about your mother the corpse?" she asked with a crazed laugh.**

**"Don't you ever talk about my mother again, you sick twisted whore! You're not worthy to even clean her boots with your tongue!"**

**"I heard she was so frightened near the end, she messed her uniform!"**

**Napolipolita reached for her sword out of habit but quickly realized it wasn't there. So instead, she moved closer to Tarim and - looking up at the woman who towered over her - told her, "My mother died a hero, in the service of her Queen and Nation. What have you ever done?"**

**Noting Napolipolita's officer uniform, Chitai screamed, "I wanted to be an officer but never got the chance! You made sure to get me kicked out of the corps of cadets, and for that, I owe you!"**

**"You tried to kill me, you sick bitch!" Napolipolita screamed back. **

**"It was a little joke," replied Tarim, her twisted mind rearranging the facts.**

**Standing tall, Napolipolita told the crazed Shakanar, "As for owing, I owe you this!" She threw a punch into the scarred face of Tarim Chitai.**

**Tarim's only reaction was to smile. Turning to her Sisters, she asked, "Did you see that?"**

**"Aye, Sister!"**

**She then turned to the bartender and asked him, "What did you see?"**

**"The officer struck you first," replied the badly frightened bar owner.**

**Now turning her attention back to Aysha, Chitai told her, "Now I'm free to finish what I started all those years ago." Then she sent her massive fist into the face of the young officer, knocking her down.**

**Shaking off the blow, Napolipolita staggered back up to her feet and launched her own attack, using the unarmed combat fighting skills she'd been taught at the Academy. The other two Shakanar made sure to keep at bay anyone else in the bar that might wish to interfere in the one-sided affair. **

**For as bravely and as skillfully as Aysha fought, it was indeed a one-sided affair. Napolipolita's kicks and punches didn't seem to have any or very little effect on the huge woman with her chemically enhanced size and muscles. Even if she managed to draw blood, Napolipolita ended the fight on the floor, with Tarim Chitai's boot on her throat.**

**Reaching down, she took her by the throat and lifted Napolipolita off the ground. "If you apologize for getting me kicked out of the Academy and admit your pig mother was a coward, I will let you live!"**

**Napolipolita's answer was to spit in the face of her conqueror. **

**Chitai growled, "Now, I will kill you very slowly and very, very painfully!"**

**"Do your worst," answered Napolipolita, landing one last punch into the face of the huge Shakanar.**

**Tarim Chitai had began to laugh as she drove her fingers into the woman's stomach and began to crush poor Napolipolita's viscera - or did, until a huge fist landed on the side of Chitai's face, knocking her down.**

**"LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" snarled Deesha as she stood between Chitai and her girlhood friend.**

**Leaping to her feet, Chitai raised her fist and prepared to attack, but was held back by the other two Shakanar. "You heard the Commander! She promised to put the both of you in a pain booth for a day if she ever caught the two of you fighting again!"**

**"It would be worth a week in the pain booth if I could rearrange that ugly face of hers, " snarled Deesha.**

**Tarim replied by telling Deesha, "If it wasn't forbidden for Shakanar to kill Shakanar, I would be feasting on your still-warm heart. But the law won't save that little bitch of yours! Someday, I will kill her."**

**"No!" said Deesha. "Law or no law, Sister or not, someday I will kill you, Chitai! I swear by the Mother - one day I will take your life!"**

**As Chitai and the other two Shakanar left the bar, Deesha bent over and got her friend back up on her feet. As Aysha stood there, swaying in the breeze, she threw one last punch, but this time at her old friend. "Take this, you ugly oversized whore!" Dazed by both the impact of Chitai's blows and a heavy overdose of G'nazian gin, Aysha spun around and fell across Deesha's broad shoulder, unconscious. Making sure she was secure and safe, Deesha smacked her bottom and told her, "Come on, my friend - time to take you home!'**


	4. Chapter 4: One of the Raldash

**CHAPTER 4: ONE OF THE RALDASH**

**After finding the address where she was billeted, Deesha carried her to her bed. And it was there that Aysha woke up, stripped of her uniform, with Deesha's large and still-friendly face over her. She had a basin of soapy water and a clean face cloth and was busy attending to the numerous cuts and bruises she'd received in the brave but one-sided fight with the twisted Tarim Chitai.**

**"I guess you're the reason I'm still alive," Napolipolita said. "Great Mother, I feel like crap."**

**"Stop complaining, will you? You talk too much," said Deesha as she smoothed out the pillow upon which the injured woman was resting. Before Napolipolita could answer, Dee added, "You also drink too much," she scolded.**

**"I've missed you all these years, Deesha," said Napolipolita.**

**"And I have missed you, my friend," answered Dee.**

**"Then you don't really blame me for your being sentenced to Mur Sejanus?" asked the teary-eyed fleet officer.**

**"Of course not," answered D, starting to cry in turn.**

**Seeing the tears on her friend's face, Aysha Napolipolita now knew that Deesha was still human - was still the friend who saved her life - was still the friend of her childhood - and was still the friend who would always be there for her. This realization, along with Dee's kindness, overwhelmed her. **

**Suddenly another feeling overwhelmed her as a spasm of pain radiated from the center of her being. Clutching her belly, Aysha asked, "By the Mother, what did that crazy bitch do to me?" **

**Pulling her hands away from her stomach Deesha used the palm of her hand to massage the agony from her friend's center. As she worked, Deesha told her, "The hold she used on you is called sini-di-ei, or the lingering death. It's a killing strike designed to kill an opponent slowly and painfully. It's also used for interrogation. Lucky for you she didn't have time to properly apply the hold." **

**"Did she learn it as part of her security training?" asked Napolipolita.**

**Deesha remained silent for a moment before she lowered her eyes in shame and answered, "No - all of us were taught that hold. And a lot worse things than that," she added.**

**Under Deesha's skillful hands, Napolipolita was soon feeling far better. **

"**It's been so long since anyone has taken care of me," she whispered. "So long."**

"**Not since your mama died, right?" Deesha replied.**

**Aysha nodded. "What did they do to you, Dee? I have felt so guilty all these years."**

"**Awful things. But enough of that; it's over and done with and can't be helped."**

"**You look so – different."**

"**Unfortunate, isn't it?" Deesha said. "I never was a beauty but at least I didn't scare people. I can't even look in mirrors any more, because I can no longer see the girl I once was. All I see is this grotesque – "**

"**No, that wasn't my meaning! Not grotesque! Dee, you couldn't help it! And if you'd never befriended me – "**

"**Stop it. I mean it. Unless I'm very wrong, you're not wound too tightly yourself. I think you – "**

" – **Was hurt so badly I'll never recover," Aysha sighed. "I accept that as my fate. I just wish I hadn't taken you down with me. I didn't mean to. It is my fault, you know."**

"**No. It was my decision to tangle with Chitai. By the way, it was all worth it today, just to see the surprise on that monster's ugly face when I smacked her. I've waited years to do that!" The homely woman smiled. "Now. Stop depressing me. Tell me where you're stationed, and what you've been up to since we last met."**

"**Her Majesty's Starship Pallas Athena," Aysha replied.**

"**Ah – the rescue ship. Now, there's a hopeless mission if I ever saw one."**

"**I know. But it's home sweet home. I'm Chief Navigation Officer."**

"**Navigation, eh? You always liked that stuff. Staring at holoscreens for the rest of my life would drive me weird," Dee chuckled. "I'll wager that you dream of bigger things - "**

"**Actually – as soon as a Chief Engineer retires, I'll be up for her job."**

"**Excellent!" Deesha wrung out a cold cloth and laid it on her friend's badly bruised cheek. "Your career seems to be coming along. But what about your love life?" It was forbidden for soldiers to take "life mates" – what Terran women would call husbands – but this didn't stop many Cygnan lifers from having "acquaintances" at most ports of call. "I heard something about you and a G'nazian, years ago. Your true love?"**

"**No," Aysha sighed. "The poor boy. His parents must have kept him locked in his room for a year. Never saw him again. Just a mistake, I suppose. And speaking of mistakes, a couple of years ago I entrusted my poor old wounded heart to a handsome Thessalonikan named Atola. Career military; long shaggy silver hair, slanted eyes, pointed ears on the big lug. Great Mother, he was so hot!" Aysha sighed once again. "I went to meet the bastard at Karis Makandi to tell him about our daughter, and caught him with this piece of Anathasian trash. I thrashed both of them within an inch of their lives; I even got arrested and thrown into a confinement chamber."**

"**Ouch!"**

**Aysha smiled in remembrance. "It was worth it, just to see the look on his sneaky face. The kakamatandis – "**

**Amused by this Cygnan slur on his manhood, Dee now imagined such a scene, and laughed out loud. "Yeung tae, Ayshiu. Not bad! So now. You mentioned a daughter?"**

"**Yes. Three of them, actually. Take the holo out of my utility belt and have a look."**

**Deesha did so, taking out a wafer-like disc that shimmered like water on the surface of an undisturbed pond. She enabled it with her thoughts; Cygnans found that enabling devices via brain waves rather than by instrumentalities saved on wear and tear. **

**There, hovering slightly above its smooth surface, were the three-dimensional images of two small green-headed girls, one of them holding an equally green-headed infant. They walked through a field of tourmaline crystals, the twin suns of the Homeworld shining down upon their sweet faces. Dee could even hear their laughter and girlish chatter, and could even smell the four-petal katiphora blossoms in full bloom – all memorialized forever in the moment the holo was created.**

"**How beautiful they are," Dee sighed. "Perhaps one day I shall be so blessed."**

"**Alia is my oldest, a CygniCity cadet. Alana, the one with the exotic eyes, is my middle girl. Atola, you know." Napolipolita smiled ruefully, rolling her eyes, one of them already blackening nicely. "My baby is Atina." **

**Their mother winced as Dee dabbed a long scratch down her left arm with medication. "It was hell leaving them, this time out. I had to wean Atina before I left, and it killed both of us. We both just cried and cried." She rubbed her unblackened eye. "Wish I was with my sweet babies instead of getting busted up in bar fights, so many parsecs from home."**

"**Busted up is right," Deesha answered, finishing the arm and then scrutinizing her friend's thin face. "You don't look so good. Too much booze, I think."**

**A frown crossed Aysha's face. **

**Uh-oh, Dee thought. Bull's eye.**

"**For your information, I don't drink too much. I was just woozy from the beating I took from that monster you call a Sister."**

**Uh-huh, Ayshiu, and I'm a seven-headed womp rat, Dee thought, sensing that it was best not to challenge her statement. "She's no Sister of mine."**

"**And you, Deesha?" Aysha said, quickly changing the subject. "How is your mother?"**

"**Fine. Retired now."**

"**Children?"**

"**No."**

"**Males here and there?"**

"**No. I've been devoting myself to my training since I saw you last."**

"**Too bad."**

"**Not really. I'm the first Shakanar trained in covert operations."**

"**Ah - the reason for that new sash! I thought I knew all of the military emblems in the Kingdom, but that one stumped me." Napolipolita cocked her head. "Hmmm. Spy Dee. I like that."**

"**I blend in pretty good among the raldash, between my size and my feelings."**

"**Don't say that word, Deesha. It makes you sound – apart from the rest of us." She reached out and took the big woman's sleeve. "I'll make sure to keep your secret - that you're the same kindly soul you ever were – safe around your Sisters." She hung her shaggy head. "I'm so grateful for that. Thank the Mother they didn't destroy your heart."**

**Deesha snuffled and wiped her face with the back of her left hand. Fumbling at a bowl on a counter near the bed, she said, "Here. Eat this intuvasa. It's all I could find on such short notice, but it's good for you."**

**Aysha sniffed at the tray. "I've had enough of that nasty shipboard synthetic to last me a lifetime."**

"**Eat it, or do I have to shove it down your gullet with my fist, you skinny stick?"**

"**Like to see you try, you_ kakamatandula_," Aysha grinned. **

**It was only after a minute or so of eating when both realized that they were re-enacting the first time they became friends, when Dee had fed Aysha because she had been too depressed to eat. They both spent the next twenty minutes sobbing out their grief over the past in each other's arms. But because joy and sadness live next door to one another, their tears eventually came around to smiles and then to laughter as Aysha regaled Dee with tale after tale of Hagio Triado Atola's most admired characteristics. Even the earthy Shakanar blushed. **

"**The Security Team took me away in restraints after I tried to sneak him onto the Pallas Athena. Spent a whole week in Stir. I swear to the Mother, I couldn't help myself. After all, Dee – it is the Cygnan Way," Aysha hooted, still between tears and laughter.**

**That conversation ended when the soldier billeted in the next room began to pound on the wall. But their friendship, still strong in spite of so many obstacles, continued. **

**Two more hours of pleasant conversation and emotional bonding took place when a new round of knocking was heard — only this time, the knocking didn't come from the room next door. It came from the door that led to the entrance to Aysha's quarters.**

**"Mind getting that, Dee? Seems the room is still spinning around ****me."**

**The big woman smiled and moved to the door, with surprising grace and style for someone so large. Deesha opened the door and saw the back of a brand-new uniform of an ensign, fresh out of the Academy. **

**The owner spun around quickly, snapping to attention and—raising her arm in the tiger-claw salute – stopping it even before completing the standard military honors.**

**The baby-faced officer, who was indeed fresh out of the CygniCity Space Academy, had expected to be addressing a serving line officer. Instead, she was horrified to discover she was standing face-to-face with one of the dreaded Shakanar. She had learned about them at the Academy; consequently, she stood there with her mouth hanging open and her whole body shaking with fear.**

**"Yes? What can I do for you, Ensign?" Dee asked.**

**With a quaking voice and a badly shaking hand, she held out a message cube. "I have a message for Third Officer Napolipolita from Grand Admiral Koretash."**

**From behind the living room wall a voice came from an unseen person, who said, "Ask her what the message is about, Dee."**

**"I have been ordered by the Admiral to tell Third Officer Napolipolita to report to her in three hours' time. The message cube is to prove that the orders come from the Admiral herself."**

**Deesha couldn't help but notice how badly the young woman's hand was shaking. The young Beneshandran soldier then handed over the message cube to one of the legendary monsters about which she and her friends had entertained each other by telling horror stories.**

**"Thank you, Ensign," said Deesha.**

**The ensign was still too much in shock to even salute, let alone answer. She quickly turned, and beat a hasty and fear-filled retreat.**

**Unlike her Sister Shakanar, Dee never enjoyed seeing the look of fear on people's faces when they encountered her. The young woman's obvious terror had hurt Deesha, but because of the many years she spent hiding her emotions from everyone around her, Dee showed neither her pain nor her disappointment.**

**After one look into her big moon face, Napolipolita told her, "Don't let that little twerp get you down, my old friend. After all, we all know that the only creatures more stupid than ensigns are the instructors at the Academy who teach them!"**

"**Sometimes I forget how ugly I've become. I hate being reminded."**

"**If it's any comfort to you, she's from Beneshandra. Planet Goofball." Napolipolita tapped the side of her head. "Lights are on but nobody's home." She held out her hand. "Well, let's see what that drip dragged over here."**

**Deesha smiled and handed her the message cube. As soon as it was in her hand, the cube read Napolipolita's DNA structure and began to broadcast a hologram of the Grand Admiral herself.**

**Koretash was a tall and dignified woman with gray hair and wild green eyes that seemed to smoulder. The hologram said, "Third Officer Aysha Napolipolita, I expect you to be in my office in exactly three hours from the moment you receive this message. Grand Admiral Koretash out!"**

**"I've seen Shakanar who weren't half as intimidating as that woman," said Deesha.**

**"Tell me about it," agreed Aysha. "Beside being the officer in charge of this sector, Koretash was supposed to be one of my mother's closest ****friends!"**

**"Well, I would hate to be that woman's enemy," said Dee.**

**"All I want to know is how I'm going to be able to get myself together so ****I can make that appointment!"**

**"I do," Deesha answered just before she picked up her friend – still very sore and scrambled from her Shakanar close encounter - and carried her to the shower.**

**Napolipolita began to struggle as she begged, "Please Dee, please don't do it! Please for the love of the Mother DON'T!" **

**But it was too late, as a laughing Deesha shoved her friend under the ice-cold water. Aysha's shrieks were answered by a furious fusillade of wall pounding by her next-door neighbor. **

"**If you're going to drink too much and get into drunken brawls with seven-foot-tall psychos, you have to pay the price!"**

**"Yes, Mother," answered Aysha, whose shrieks became laughter, even as the ice cold water began chasing away the booze she still had sloshing around her system.**

**A hour later and with the help of her friend, Napolipolita was in a clean dress uniform and was ready to leave to keep her appointment with Grand Admiral Koretash. She stopped at the door and turned around. "You're not going to be here when I come back, are you?"**

**"I can't, my friend," answered Deesha. "The Shakanar Council of Elders like to keep their monsters on a short leash!"**

**"Don't say that about yourself, Deesha. You're not one of those sad creatures, never have been, and never will be!"**

**Deesha smiled back at her warmly as Napolipolita asked, "You will be keeping in touch, won't you?"**

**"You can count on it, Mikvikti Ashiu," promised Spy Dee.**

**One hour later, Napolipolita was escorted into the private office of Grand Admiral Koretash. As Napolipolita snapped to attention and saluted, the Grand Admiral brusquely returned her salute, then turned to her aide. "I don't want to be disturbed for any reason. If I am disturbed, it better be because there is a full-scale Kirlian invasion, or because Queen Zazen'lda herself is knocking on my door!"**

**As soon as they were alone, Koretash ordered, "At ease, Napolipolita!" Koretash had always believed in being blunt. It had cost her friends and promotions during her long years of service with the Cygnan fleet, but it had also brought her respect. Sitting down in front of the standing Napolipolita, Koretash told the young officer, "Do you know I have been covering for you concerning your drinking problem?"**

**"What problem would that be -?"**

**"SHUT UP!" ordered the Admiral. "The only reason I've made excuses for your behavior was because up until now, you haven't let your drinking interfere with your duties."**

**Napolipolita suddenly felt trapped in front of this legendary officer. She felt the same way she had when she was ten years old and her mother had caught her up to mischief on the Pana Gaia.**

"**Do you know your mother and I were in the same cadet class in the Academy, and that in fact we were roommates?"**

**"I didn't know that," answered Napolipolita.**

**"There are a great many things you don't know," she yelled at the third**  
><strong>officer. "Your mother and I fought side by side and back to back. We both shed our blood for our Queen and Empire." She then added quietly, "Your mother even saved my life, and on more than one occasion!"<strong>

**"I believe you did the same for her as well," interrupted Aysha.**

**"I'm not going to tell you to shut up again," the Admiral warned. "We even got into a knock-down bloody fistfight over a man once - and even that couldn't end our friendship!"**

**"May I ask who won?" asked Napolipolita.**

**"I won the battle, but your mother won the war. We were fighting over the male who would one day be your father. Even if I won the fight, she took home the prize!"**

**"My so-called father was never much of a prize!"**

**"Maybe," said Korash. "But he was pretty!" The Admiral added, "I would like to think – no, I know - that if it had been me who had joined our fallen Sisters serving in the Summerland, your mother would do everything she could to protect my daughters!"**

"**Thank you, Admiral."**

"**It's because of this, and due to the love and respect that I still have for your mother, that I called you in today to tell you that you are ruining your career and your future." **

"**How am I doing that, Admiral?" **

"**Because of this so-called Shakanar friend of yours!" she yelled back into the green-haired woman's face. "By the Mother, you are an annoying child!"**

"**There is nothing so-called about it. Deesha is my friend." **

"**She can't be your friend," Koretash bellowed, right into the face of the young officer standing before her. "Shakanar don't have friends - because to have a friend, one must be human first - and Shakanar are not human."**

"**Then what are they?" asked Napolipolita.**

"**They are weapons, pure and simple. Weapons. And just like weapons, when they are used up, you dispose of what's left and get another! What you are is a fool, Napolipolita, for the way you've been going around trying to get that - that creature - transferred out of the Shakanar. You're doing no good for her, and all you're doing to yourself is making enemies in high places."**

"**She is my friend, Admiral, who saved my life more than once. She was put in a world of monsters, and still managed to avoid becoming a monster herself. And if you must know why I'm willing to throw my career away for her, it's because the only reason she was sent to the Shakanar in the first place was because she was so big and ugly. And because of the way she looked, no one bothered to look at the kind and generous heart that beat within that massive frame." **

**The Admiral frowned. "You have no idea how hard it's been for me to keep Commander Maldekai's nose out of your service file. Frankly, I think she considers you a threat; people more or less thought that you would take your mother's place as Commander once you grew up. Unfortunately, that place is already taken by the Good Commander herself, and she wants to keep it that way for a good long time."**

"**Yes, I'm aware of that," Aysha sighed.**

"**Didn't I tell you to keep your big trap shut, child? Your behavior in the star base bars has been a scandal; you can deny it all you want, but in your heart you know I speak the truth. Maldekai would love to see you busted right down to Fighter Pilot, so she could ship you to the Outer Rim to rot!" **

**The Admiral then paced the floor, thinking about Napolipolita's statement concerning Deesha Dakina. "Kind and generous heart, eh? How can such a person survive Shakanar training without going stark raving mad? And why do you feel so responsible for this woman, anyway?"**

**Napolipolita grew bold, as she looked the Admiral in the eye. "The biggest reason for my involvement is because she got into a vicious fight saving my life from a true Shakanar recruit. And that happened only because a few students and instructors were injured trying to break it up. It was for that they condemned her to Avernus!"**

**Admiral Koretash smiled, then paused. "You remind me of your mother, standing there defending your friend. But facts are facts, girl. Dakina will live and die a Shakanar, and all you'll do for yourself is destroy your hard-earned career!"**

"**So be it," answered Napolipolita. **

**Koretash shook her head incredulously. "You're as hardheaded and brave as your mother ever was. I'd hate to see the Nation lose an officer with so much promise because of something like a Shakanar!"**

"**Not for a Shakanar, Admiral - for a friend!"**

**Admiral Koretash couldn't help but admire the troubled officer standing before her. She was so much like her mother, and yet so different. But to drive her point home, Admiral Koretash yelled, "Now get your sorry ass out of my office!" **

**Napolipolita snapped to attention and gave her the tiger-claw salute. She had her back turned as she went out the door, and so was unable to see the smile on the Grand Admiral's face. **

**Koretash screamed, "CAPTAIN REBASH! GET IN HERE!" At once - as if by magic - the Admiral's aide appeared and stood at attention. **

**Looking at her, the Admiral said, "Contact Grand Admiral Vigilantia on my behalf and tell her to watch out for Maldekai. With all this Shakanar scuttlebutt, I suspect she's got her feelers out, and will try to pump her for information about any indiscretions on Napolipolita's part."**

"**Aye, Admiral," said her loyal aide, another cheerful and efficient Beneshandran. **

"**I also want you to get all the information you can on a Shakanar named Deesha Akana Dakina and have it on my desk in twenty-six hours!"**

**Out of loyalty for her superior officer, the aide cleared her throat. "May I ask why the Admiral would concern herself for something like a Shakanar?" **

**Koretash turned her back to her and looked out over the Command Structure grounds, the tourmaline crystals sending shards of hot light back toward the binary stars from which they came. "We both know that Her Majesty's Space Navy never makes a mistake, but perhaps - in this case - we might have been a little less than right!" **

**The young aide smiled, saluted, and hurried off.**


	5. Chapter 5: Drunk

**CHAPTER 5: DRUNK**

**Napolipolita should have been feeling better about herself, but she wasn't. She had found her childhood friend Deesha after years of searching, and had even met her mother's best friend - the legendary Grand Admiral Koretash. If these events hadn't been cause enough for celebration, she'd also just earned her third Command Star and had also been promoted to the rank of Chief Engineer. As she'd predicted to Dee, Corporal Adana Carchemish had retired, and the job became hers. **

**But all was not well with the ship's brand-new Chief Engineer. **

**The days were not that bad for Napolipolita, since she was busy seeing to the Pallas Athena's refit in space dock. She was also responsible for supervising the younger officers as they went about loading more supplies onto that great rescue ship (after all, she was an old-timer, already in her twenties). As the Egota had circled Arentha-6 and had afterward been safely nestled in space dock, Aysha couldn't keep from thinking at night about the Grand Admiral's twin warnings - the first about her friendship with Deesha, and the second about her drinking. In fact, the separate comments from both of these women had caused Napolipolita to worry that she was in fact a drunk, and that all her denial was doing was stopping her from finding help.**

**She had resolved to cut back on her drinking and to stop feeling sorry for herself, but unknown to the new Chief Engineer, it was already too late for her. Also unknown to Napolipolita was the fact that she was just about to reach a new point in her sickness. While in its throes, the young woman would discover that she no longer needed a drink to feel good about herself, but instead would need it just to keep herself from feeling bad. After that, it would be a very short journey to drinking just to avoid feeling sick!**

**The nights were the worst, as she now spent them all alone in her private quarters just adjacent to the Pallas Athena's bridge. When she'd been Chief Navigation Officer, she'd at least had a roommate, but because she was now entitled to her own cabin, she was lonely. And loneliness is very dangerous to an alcoholic who wants to drink.**

**She had managed to spend time with Deesha whenever she and her large friend could arrange it, but those times were getting fewer and fewer since both the Shakanar Council and the regular Space Navy were now leaning on both of them. Napolipolita was also bored with the whole idea of searching for the missing princess, having come to the conclusion that the royal heir had died years ago, while she wasted her young life chasing a phantom. **

**Traveling from one end of the Galaxy to the other, chasing down rumors, and running after third-hand reports were not her ideas of serving her Queen. Napolipolita would have much preferred to lose herself in battle with the Kirlian fleet, or at least chasing down and doing battle with cross-borders raiders. But instead, it was a very bored Chief Engineer who did her best to try to keep busy at night, alone in her room.**

**She did this by going back to her childhood memories on the Pana Gaia, her late mother's ship. She had spent many happy hours with the Commander, learning the finer points of hyperspace navigation from her. Aysha's mother had taught her daughter well, and even at the young age of ten, little Napolipolita had been more than capable of plotting a course or steering a starship through the many currents and eddies of time and space. **

**As Napolipolita now worked alone in her room, she remembered back to how her mother had told her stories of the great old wind-powered sailing ships that had traveled the Cygnan oceans. She recalled now that the ancient captains of those ships didn't plot their courses in straight lines, but in roundabout routes.**

**Her mother had explained that sailing by sail was different then sailing under power, and that the shortest distance between two points wasn't always a straight line. The child would listen in fascination as her mother told her that a good captain would know how to take advantage of the ocean's currents and eddies - as well as its winds - to arrive at its next port in the shortest amount of time. Napolipolita's mother had also explained to her young child that the Sea of Hyperspace was like those ancient oceans. When the Cygnans and their celestial neighbors, the Keftiu, had first discovered hyperspace, they used it to travel the great distances of interstellar space. All of those long-dead captains had known its strange currents and eddies as well. **

**But since the new and more powerful Mygo-class engines had come online, such knowledge was considered old-fashioned and useless. As such, it had been quickly forgotten. But Commander Alia Napolipolita had kept the knowledge of the old ways alive, and had also made sure that her daughter and sole heir became an expert in them as well. The youngster had learned her lessons well, and had always kept up with what her mother had tried to teach her before the Kirlian renegades had ended her noble life. **

**In fact, the Pallas Athena's new Chief Engineer was now considered the Space Navy's greatest expert in hyperspace currents.**

**It was this knowledge and skill - carefully passed down from her mother - which kept Napolipolita busy at night. She had already reasoned that the ship carrying the infant princess had most likely lost power in hyperspace. If that had in fact occurred, then the currents in that sector of the void would have carried the disabled ship to a location where no Cygnan rescue ship had ever looked. Napolipolita had also reasoned that the disabled ship should have drifted and come out of hyperspace somewhere near one of the outer spiral arms of the galaxy known to Terrans as the Milky Way. **

**She knew that three solar systems existed in that area. One was Vega, bordering the farthest reaches of the thirty-three galaxy Cygnan Empire, the second belonged to the silicon-based races of Alpha Centauri, and the last (and in her opinion, the least) system was the one the Terrans called Sol. This insignificant smudge of space debris was known to contain nine planets, one of which might once have had a so-called civilization.**

**The inhabitants of this backward planet called their world "Urth". It was rated a level six on the Industrial and Scientific Scale used in the Tauka Banesh System proper, which meant that it was next door to pitiful. It didn't have much to offer in the way of trade, and had held very little interest to the Cygnan Empire. A few scouting vessels had been sent that way in the past, but the place had proved so boring that no more had been sent - at least by the Cygnans - for nearly a hundred years. **

**There had been rumors of other interstellar empires attempting to invade this primitive mud ball, but for some strange reason they seemed to have failed. Ultimately, the Cygnans concluded that such tales were only lame excuses for their rivals' typical failures, and thus they were of no consequence.**

**Napolipolita had heard all the tales of strange beings with equally strange powers stopping these incursions. She also remembered hearing once at the Pulsar Bar at the Tell Shemshara Spaceport that the Zetas had actually been shot down there, over a high desert - and that the bodies of both survivors and casualties were squirreled away in stasis chambers. As if anyone would consider a Zeta a worthy specimen! But then again, she had been drinking Adramytium wine at the time, and her thinking might have been muddled. **

**However, this small planet called Urth did, in fact, have one thing for which it was unwittingly famous - its music. The many types of musical treasures coming from this primitive world via radio waves were both a delight and a mystery to the Cygnans. They especially enjoyed a type of music called Opiroh.**

**Music from Urth had even been among her own mother's hobbies. Commander Alia Napolipolita had always promised herself and her little girl that they would someday travel there, just to see and - most important of all, to hear - what was going on there. Tragically, a Kirlian broadsword to her breast had ended that dream.**

**Napolipolita had been using the Pallas Athena's sentient computers to monitor what Terrans called teevee brotcass coming from this primitive world. These radio waves traveled at light-speed, and so all a listener had to do was wait long enough and new and even more bizarre visual and aural delights would be hers. These had only started within the last seventy years or so. Aysha's superior officers didn't know about her unique hobby, but there were quite a few things she had wanted hidden from their scrutiny. It didn't bother her unduly.**

**One time she had seen a blonde young man who called himself Charlzvandorinn win a lot of money on a battle-for-money competition. She had also amused herself by watching PeuhBeuhEss stories; one of her favorites was called Eyeclotius and some of its actors wore clothing like those worn by her own people. She had once enjoyed a few broken moments of a broadcast about a beautiful amazon (not unlike herself) with an outfit that, if she had worn it, would have made it very uncomfortable for her to sit down. She recalled that this woman with the funny outfit called herself Wundiwumun.**

**Napolipolita spent many lonely hours in her lonely quarters, decorated with her mother's sword and holograms of her daughters (which bore the scent of katiphora blossoms in bloom), watching such things, and drinking while she did it. The booze made the loneliness a little more bearable. It also had the added benefit of permitting her to pass out, so that she wouldn't dream about her mother's dying crewmembers. **

**Napolipolita often sang, in her low and oddly toneless voice, the songs she had learned from these transmissions. She could only do so alone since her Sister crewmembers had been more than obvious in cranking up the white noise transmissions when she so much as hummed on the bridge. She did so now, as she intercepted a new batch of transmissions from Urth.**

**Hyrru storiye ova lovleyladee**

**Ho was brinin up tree very lovleygrls**

**Eitchofdem hat harragold**

**Lik theyr madere**

**Do yungistwun en kurls.**

**But first and foremost, Aysha was a soldier, and she made good use of her hobby. By using an image of one of Queen Zazen'lda's younger daughters, she had ordered Mother to flag any close matches among any such transmissions. For the past three months - ever since the ship was in dry dock being refitted - Napolipolita had been running her program. **

**There had been a few false alarms, but not today. Today, the computer screen in front of her displayed a picture of a small ten-year-old girl who had an eerie resemblance to both little Princess E-ko and her Mother the Queen.**

**"Thank you, Mother," Napolipolita whispered, smiling and polishing off her last bottle of Altay Choybalsan sour mash. **


	6. Chapter 6: The Discovery

**CHAPTER 6: THE DISCOVERY**

**Exhilarated by her discovery, Napolipolita had requested a meeting for the next morning with the Captain of the Pallas Athena, Kau Rivkos.**

**Rivkos was no Beneshandran, but hailed from the high desert of Mur Sejanus. As a consequence, she was hard as nails. She crossed her arms and fixed Aysha with her gaze.**

**"All you have brought to my attention, Napolipolita, is the disconcerting fact that you have deviated from Plan by programming Mother to perform unauthorized functions. Plus, this image is scarcely what I would consider hard evidence." She flipped it onto her desk with disdain.**

**Aysha craned her neck, looking once again at the holographic image. It was more than a trifle blurred and indistinct - having come from a New York City television news broadcast when A-ko and C-ko had their adventures there - but to her, the resemblance to the Royal Family was clear. "Excuse me, Ma'am," Napolipolita said, "I would like to ask your permission to follow this thread to its logical conclusion. I really believe that - "**

**Her Captain cut her short. "You would best serve Queen and Empire by staying sober, Chief Engineer, rather than wasting time playing games." She looked at the woman's pale face, wishing she could see behind those dark shades to discern the anger or fear in Napolipolita's eyes. "Leave the image with me and return to your morning's duties. We ship out today, and it is up to you to ensure that the Athena is perfectly outfitted. That is all."**

**Napolipolita gave the tiger-claw salute, turned, and left. Captain Rivkos watched her go, and waited for the door to shut with a dry whickering sound before she let out her breath. "Damn," she grumbled. "If we find the Princess, then I'm out of a command post. They'll probably assign me to the cargo docks somewhere in the Outer Rim." She looked around at her quarters with satisfaction, and then activated her com with her thoughts. "Commander** **Maldekai, please," she requested in a firm voice once the connection was made.**

**xxxxxxx**

**The Chief Engineer, with her stomach now in knots, strode down the corridor to her own quarters for a quick drink before returning to the bridge.**

_**Great Mother she knows, she KNOWS! But how? I drink in my room at night, and when I take a little nip now and then during working hours, she's never around, and I'm careful not to get too close to anyone else!**_

**She entered her solitary room, activating a scanning device Deesha - an expert in covert operations - had once given to her. "After all," the big Shakanar had explained, "you never know when you'll need it."**

_**Indeed, Dee my friend - yes indeed!**_

**Jumping onto her bed and searching the ceiling, Aysha held up the device; it soon glowed a warm orange right next to the ventilation duct. Reaching onto her utility belt, Napolipolita withdrew a tool and pried it open. A tiny device - hardly bigger than an old-fashioned computer chip - fluttered out and settled upon her pillow.**

**Aysha spent the next three minutes in a spate of swearing that would have put a Terran truck driver to shame. Her superior - the Captain of Her Majesty's Ship Pallas Athena - would have heard her, except she was too busy scheming with both Commander Itisia Maldekai and Vipsania Parsua - Chief Priestess of the Cybele Cult - with a view toward keeping Napolipolita's discovery tightly under wraps.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Commander Itisia Maldekai - who had suspicious icy blue eyes, long white hair, and a sour disposition - now fretted about how best to quash any rumor of Napolipolita's discovery.**

**Napolipolita. The name still made her stomach churn.**

**Although she had succeeded the murdered Alia Napolipolita, Maldekai felt no warmth toward her daughter. She was quite content to let that idiotic Grand Admiral fret about the drunkard.**

**The Commander now recalled the Battle of Icaria with a rush of bitterness and shame. Maldekai had seen all those Xram fighters, and had panicked. Her commands – rash, without a doubt, and triggered by emotion rather than by reason – had led to the destruction of seventeen Omni fighters and their crews.**

**She had made sure never to let such a thing happen again. These days, the Commander was the very soul of reason.**

**Her then-commanding officer had been Alia Napolipolita, who had busted her down three ranks and had called for her court martial. That bitch with her green-headed baby had even gone so far as to press for Maldekai's execution!**

**It had been a good thing that her Aunt Plancina had been so well connected. As a member of the Magdiu Veru – the governing body of the Great Mother religion - Plancina had the power (as did each member of the Pathfollowers' Council** **of Fifteen) to overturn any command decision only twice in her lifetime, and only after a thorough review of the facts of the case by her Sister Magdiu. As a result, Maldekai had been restored to her former rank, and the black mark on her service record had been duly expunged.**

**Smiling slightly, Maldekai now stood in front of her window and gazed out at the crystal gardens just outside Command Structure Headquarters.**

**She was sure of three things. The first was that she owed the Cybellines a great deal. The second was that she would carry a grudge against Napolipolita to her grave. And third, that she had just concluded a very satisfying conversation with a certain select member of the Magdiu Veru.**

**Very satisfying indeed.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Wanaky Koteridis - destined in the years to come to become the inamorata of Hagio Triado Atola, Napolipolita's former flame - stormed down the main corridor of Hydro City, one of the "neighborhoods" in the vast "city" of the Egota Pallas Athena.**

**"That _kakamatandula_," she growled, her balled fists swinging at her sides in rhythm with her long strides. Her superior officer had just assigned her a month's laundry duty.**

**"Don't you mean my boss?" she had snapped to her roommate. "The Captain sure as Avernus isn't my superior! Cross-eyed mother of a womp rat!"**

**Wanaky was a navigator, and had worked under Aysheia Napolipolita, whom she had liked. Her laundry duty was punishment for breaking up a spaceport bar on Ali Kosh. Hey, hadn't Napi been there herself, thoroughly tanked on G'nazian gin and swinging fists right along with her? The Cygnan now smiled at the recollection.**

**"I like a man who knows his place," Aysha had slurred jubilantly. "With his throat under my boot!" She had looked down at the young Thessalonikan officer - who had the effrontery and bad taste to suggest that both ladies looked like boys - pinned under her own size 10 shoe. Both Napolipolita and Koteridis had a good laugh over that one, united in the camaraderie of the Matriarchy. It had been a golden moment.**

**But it had been thoroughly spoiled after the two of them had been ratted out. Didn't anyone understand that hard-fighting and hard-drinking space amazons had to blow off steam once in a while? And what was the big deal about shattering two dozen bottles and breaking the joint's windows? The Chief Spaceport Security Officer had immediately informed Captain Rivkos that both soldiers were now considered personae non grata. And it didn't do to be thrown out of** **a drinking establishment as tacky as the Wanaroona Lagoon.**

**Napolipolita had more or less already been in trouble in Rivkos' eyes, and Wanaky was destined to join her. The upshot of it all was that Koteridis had been sentenced to scrubbing dainties rather than steering the giant star cruiser safely through the Sea of Stars.**

**The burly blonde set her jaw as she stomped along, cadets scuttling out of her way and Sister soldiers giving her a wide berth.**

**This was not good, and somebody had to pay. She was ready to cut herself a slice of somebody's butt. And it might as well be the wide posterior of Captain Rivkos.**

**xxxxxxx**

**Vipsania Parsua, Chief Priestess of the Cybele Cult, had no use for Queen Zazen'lda and those of her ilk. Weaklings and simps, all of them! And that included any lost children that Her High and Mighty Majesty had knocking around the universe.**

**Parsua liked Napolipolita, as her mother had been a great supporter of the Great Mother faith, but the soldier's interests paled in light of an opportunity to weaken the authority of that namby-pamby Pathfollower now sitting on the Topaz Throne.**

**Parsua didn't want the lost princess to be found for a very simple reason. Zazen'lda's daughters had already shown little interest in succeeding their mother. They had seen firsthand what a toll governance of thirty-three galaxies had taken on her over the years. The Magdiu Veru would much rather see the Queen's sister Shaska succeed her instead. Both Shaska and her daughter Zelda honored the Mother instead of the Shotosarikan, and that was all to the good.**

**The Cybele worshippers' relationship with the Throne would be strengthened immeasurably by such an outcome. It would be such a mistake to let a long-lost heir to the Cygnan Empire suddenly surface, and after all these years.**

**Vipsania Parsua also cherished another hope. Once the power of the Magdiu Veru had been consolidated with that of the civil and military establishments, there would be no stopping them from outlawing the Pathfollower faith outright.**

**Good deal, she thought, smiling.**

**Napolipolita now stood before the enormous statue of Cybele located within the Egota's temple. She felt off-balance, and questioned her own motives. Was she unnecessarily trying to antagonize those who could advance her badly flagging** **career? Or did she owe it to her Queen to follow through on the tantalizing hint that had made its way from Urth years before, right to her very eyes?**

**She sighed, bowed low, and then held up her hands, elbows close to her waist, palms out and fingertips pointing skyward:**

_**A warrior's word, my solemn pledge,**_  
><em><strong>Defending you with my sword's edge.<strong>_  
><em><strong>My arrows true, my heart the same<strong>_  
><em><strong>The Nation my home, my eternal flame.<strong>_  
><em><strong>I stand for truth, my word my bond,<strong>_  
><em><strong>my life's breath<strong>_  
><em><strong>an Amazon.<strong>_

**"HEY," said Wanaky, walking up behind Aysha, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin.**

**"Great Mother, Koteridis! You scared me! I was praying. What do you want?"**

**"You were good to me when you headed Nav."**

**"Uh - thank you. What's this all about?"**

**"I understand you had a little meeting with the Boss this morning."**

**"How did you know that?"**

**"A little bingkwa told me. I even know what it was about. That cow put me on laundry duty, and I was just carrying out my orders nice as could be, and bringing Rivkos her undies. Interesting what you can overhear when the Captain's aides think you're some grunt without enough brains to blow her nose."**

**"Then you know that she refused to allow me to follow up on finding – "**

**" – our Lost Princess. Can you imagine?" sighed Wanaky. "Turning down a chance like that? I could be shacked up on Anathasia with my honey, cranking out kids like there was no tomorrow."**

**Aysha smiled, wishing she had an Anathasian honey herself.**

**"Well, here's some news for you, Chief Engineer Napolipolita. The great and honorable Captain Rivkos – who wears underpants big and baggy enough to wipe down a transport cruiser – is out to make sure that you don't open your big mouth to anyone about what you found!"**

**Napolipolita's jaw dropped.**

**"Isn't it funny?**

**"You're starting to annoy me, Koteridis. What's funny?"**

**"That I came here when I did."**

**"How so?"**

**"Because I'm the answer to your prayers."**

****xxxxxxx****

**Unlike Captain Rivkos of HMS Pallas Athena, Grand Admiral Koretash - member of the Council of Fifteen, the leaders of the Pathfollower faith - mother of eight girls - and former best friend of the deceased Commander Alia Napolipolita - had a heart bigger than the Tauka Banesh System.**

**She had spoken the way she had to Aysha to give her something to think about the next time she hoisted a cold one to her lips. It worried Koretash greatly that her best friend's daughter was, as Terrans would put it, going down the tubes. The young woman needed a mother far more than she needed to be a mother at this point; yet rumor had it that she** **was pregnant again, the result of a close encounter at the Batshireet Darhan Spaceport.**

**"I'm sorry, Alia," the Grand Admiral thought to herself while organizing her day's tasks. "I wish I could have done a better job watching over your girl." She then prayed to the Shotosarikan, who created the universe from nothing and sustained it moment by moment, for the ability to place the young woman's feet on the right path. Prayers were appropriate because this would be difficult. Napolipolita's scars were deep, and largely unhealed.**

**Well, a Pathfollower can try, at least.**

**The entrance of her Beneshandran aide, who had the improbable name of Ceos Claxomenae, interrupted her musings. "Grand Admiral?" she said, in her chirpy voice.**

**"Yes?"**

**"Chief Engineer Napolipolita is here to see you."**

**"Really? Her purpose?"**

**"I don't really know, Ma'am."**

**"Send her in."**

**Within a few moments, Napolipolita stood before Koretash, and saluted smartly.**

**"And what brings your sorry carcass to me today? And why are you out of uniform?" Koretash asked, a deliberate edge to her voice.**

**"Honor demanded that I resign my Commission!"**

**"Just why in hell would you do such a foolish thing?" Koretash demanded to know.**

**"Grand Admiral - I don't quite now how to put this - "**

**"Then state it plainly."**

**"Yes, Ma'am."**

**Grand Admiral Koretash seated herself, and invited the green-headed soldier to do the same.**

**"This isn't official, by any means, but I've come across some information that might be of interest to you. It certainly is to me."**

**Koretash leaned back, steepling her long fingers together, and gazed at Napolipolita - who greatly resembled her late mother.**

**Aysha cleared her throat. "I have uncovered some information which may well lead us to the recovery of our Lost Princess. I have also learned of a conspiracy among my higher-ups to keep it from reaching the ears of Her Majesty Zazen'lda the First."**

**"Conspiracy is a strong word, Napolipolita," the Grand Admiral said.**

**"I chose it quite deliberately, even if such a thing is very painful to me and nearly unbelievable."**

**"Then go ahead and speak your mind," ordered the Grand Admiral. "Your mother always did."**

****xxxxxxx****

**Ten minutes later, Grand Admiral Koretash strode out of her office, a holographic image in her hand and the fire of righteous anger in her eyes. It was the same look she had worn twenty-five years earlier, when she had led the Cygnan Fleet that had cleaned out an entire Kirlian division at the Battle of Crab Nebula.**

**Within four strides she was standing in front of her surprised aide's desk, who at the moment was standing at attention and delivering her best tiger claw salute to her commanding officer. **

**"Captain Claxomenae, contact the landing field. Tell them I wanted my personal scout ship ready to take off twenty minutes ago, and use someone to prep my ship who can be trusted to keep her mouth shut," Koretash shouted at her aide. **

**"I know just the woman, Admiral," Ceos answered. "She is one of your reclamation projects and her mother served under you when you defeated the Kirlians. She is also very grateful for everything you have done for her." **

**"That will be fine, Captain," answered the Admiral. **

**Captain Claxomenae then asked, "Admiral, should I drive you to the Penthesilea Tyro Spaceport after making the call, or should I simply meet you there?" **

**Admiral Koretash smiled at her aide as she placed her hand almost tenderly on her shoulder. "No, my young friend. I don't want you mixed up in this mess any more that you already have been. First of all, it's far too dangerous and second, you have your whole young life, not to mention a promising future, to look forward to." **

**"I wouldn't have much of a future or even a life if it wasn't for you, Admiral!" **

**"Nonsense, Claxomenae - all you needed was a push in the right direction, and I am warning you that I will not put up with any more of this rampant sentimentality on your part." said Koretash as she reverted to her blustering old self. "Besides," she added, "I need someone to stay behind and lie about where I've gone."**

**Snapping to attention, the Admiral's aide said, "It will be an honor to lie for you!" **

**Returning her tiger claw salute, Koretash told her, "Wait five hours after we leave, then feel free to post a flight plan!" **

**"Where to?" asked Claxomenae. **

**"If we're successful, to the Homeworld. If not, the Summerland - or perhaps even Avernus!" With a final salute, Admiral Koretash was out the door and rushing towards the transport tubes. **

**Napolipolita was just turning to follow her when she felt Claxomenae's hand on her arm, holding her back. As Napolipolita turned to her, the young woman told her, "I don't know what this is all about, Chief Engineer Napolipolita. But let me warn you here and now - if anything happens to her, you will have to answer to me!" **

**Napolipolita asked, "Why should you care, especially after the way she screams at you?" **

**"Because you weren't the only drunk who needed help after she'd screwed up her life and career!" With that, Ceos Claxomenae sat back down and began making all arrangements for her beloved Admiral's arrival at the spaceport. **

****xxxxxxx****

**Napolipolita caught up with the Admiral in the transport tube. Once they were on the ground, they took the Admiral's private hopper to the Penthesilea Tyro Spaceport. When they were finally alone, Koretash asked Napolipolita, "How did you get that information cube past Security?" **

**Napolipolita's face turned red as she said, "Before I went to the Captain with my proof, I made a backup recording. When Captain Rivkos let slip about my drinking while alone in my quarters, I knew my room had to be bugged. I searched and found the spy device, and then realized that Rivkos would have me searched before allowing me off the Pallas Athena."**

**The Admiral nodded.**

"**I made a third recording and hid it in a very uncomfortable place. The second I hid not-too-well in my traveling bag. Once the Captain's goon squad found the second memory cube, they were satisfied and let me go without a cavity search!" **

**Koretash began to laugh, as she said, "No wonder you walked so funny coming into my office!" After she had caught her breath she added, "You're so much like your dear mother. I'll wager she never told you that when she was just a fresh-faced young ensign, she'd hidden the security code for the starship upon we were serving in the very same place you did!"**

**"Why?" asked Napolipolita. **

**"Because our ship was stuck in space dock for routine - and boring - maintenance, we wanted to sneak away for a short 'vacation'. So we both went AWOL for three days so we could shack up with a couple of Throsian iridium merchants. When we got back, of course, we got thrown in the brig for our little indiscretion." **

**Aysha sighed, rolling her eyes behind her dark shades. "Perhaps such behavior runs in the family."**

"**Yes, as I've heard. What an incorrigible brat you are. Your mother should have beaten you daily with a labrys handle."**

"**As you were saying, Admiral?"**

"**Oh. Yes. It was lucky for both of us that there was a major Kirlian attack in our sector, and that they needed every able-bodied warrior, including the brig rats." **

**"Mama earned her first medal and commendation for that battle. In fact, Mama told me you were also decorated for that fight," said Napolipolita. **

**"That's right - we both were," replied Admiral Koretash. "And lucky for us we were," she quickly added. "It would have caused problems for Her Majesty's Space Navy if a couple of her newest heroes were court-martialed for going AWOL. And so - they forgot about our little mistake, and chalked it up to youthful high spirits!" Napolipolita had a broad grin on her face as Koretash added; "I hope I haven't disillusioned you about your mother's memory." **

**"No," answered Napolipolita. "In fact, I never felt closer to my mother than I do now." **

"**You miss her still, young one."**

"**And always will."**

"**Well, she was a fine soldier and friend, as well as mother. And if her errant daughter straightens herself out, I might even add that both of you were – and are – credits to the Fleet."**

"**Now who's lapsing into sentimentality, Admiral?" Napolipolita smiled, afraid to grin, as she knew full well she was taking a liberty as it was.**

"**You're beginning to do 'Grand Admiral Koretash' better than I do!"**

**Now Aysha's smile turned into the grin that had been struggling to show itself. She lacked some of the more subtle social graces due to the circumstances surrounding her upbringing, and was acutely aware of it.**

**Napolipolita relaxed a little and was happy that the two of them felt comfortable together, because Koretash reminded her of her own Madere Misua, now years dead.**


	7. Chapter 7: Escape

**CHAPTER 7: ESCAPE**

**In a few minutes they arrived at the Penthesilea Tyro Spaceport and rushed to the Admiral's personal craft. It was a converted Zardez-class fighter-bomber, known for their speed and endurance. Here, a boson's mate, who was standing at the entrance ramp, met them. She saluted once for the Admiral, once again for Chief Engineer Napolipolita, and stood at attention. **

**After returning the salute the Admiral asked, "Boson Cartar-eli, isn't it?" **

**"Aye Aye, Admiral." **

**"Is the ship ready to fly?" asked Koretash. **

**"Prime and ready, fueled and armed with enough supplies aboard for a party of ten for a year," Boson Carta-eli replied proudly. **

**Taking out her own personal recording device, Admiral Koretash spoke into it. **

**"Boson Cartar-eli is on a two-week pass starting immediately - authorization 9067 Koretash, Grand Admiral, Nisyros Sector." She took out the disk and, upon handing it over to the boson, told her, "Now get lost! And don't come back for the next two weeks." **

**"If there is trouble, Admiral, I want to stay and help and - " **

**"And nothing, Boson! You have done your duty. It's time now to look out for your own ass!" With a final salute, Koretash then climbed aboard with such speed that even the long-legged Napolipolita had to rush to catch up with the older woman. **

**As soon as they were inside, the Admiral said, "I've heard what a good pilot you are when you're sober, Napolipolita. How about proving it by taking off for the Homeworld as fast as you can?"**

**A few seconds later, the ship took off with Napolipolita at the controls. She nodded her head in approval and pleasure. "Never piloted a Zardaz of this generation. Helped build the sixth gen, however. It was one of my little projects at the Academy."**

"**Is that your subtle way of telling me that my third gen is a flying crate of space dung?"**

"**Why no, Admiral!" Aysha said, doing a 360-degree loop-de-loop because she felt like showing off and it felt nice. "I've got to get myself one of these!"**

"**Put the plug in the jug, you Colossal Pain in the Ass, and I'll see what I can do."**

**After they had safely made the jump to Hyperspace, Napolipolita took the opportunity to ask, "Why the rush, Admiral?"**

**"You really don't think you weren't followed, Napolipolita?"**

**"I didn't notice," answered the green-haired soldier.**

**"You weren't supposed to notice. But if you're right about this conspiracy -and I think you are – you've most likely been under observation ever since that image of the Royal Princess hit your visi-screen."**

**"But why the haste?"**

**"I learned one thing as a military leader. Once you form a plan, strike hard and strike fast. Right now, the conspirators are in contact with one another, trying to decide what to do about your sudden departure." **

**Napolipolita nodded solemnly, then reached for her hip flask.**

"**Here it is," the Admiral said, holding the metal container between two gloved fingers. "On your mother's behalf, I ought to ram it down your throat. I assume, then, that you're not currently producing another little soldier of the Realm?"**

"**That's right, Ma'am," Napolipolita replied, embarrassed. **

_**Suckered again, **_**Aysha thought.**_** First, I've been bugged, then I've been traced, and now a Grand Admiral can pick my pocket without my noticing and even keep tabs on my fecundity. Oh Great Mother help me!**_

**Koretash pocketed the flask. "With a little luck, they will still be debating for the next five hours - and by that time, we will be halfway to Alpha Cygni and safety! That is, until we do reach the Homeworld, then all bets are off. I hope you're as handy with a broadsword and a blaster as you are with a gin bottle!"**

"**Have no doubts on that score, Admiral," Napolipolita replied.**

"**We're not there yet, my young friend. Just make sure you don't burn my engines or bring us out of hyperspace ass-backward."**

"**Yes, Ma'am."**

****xxxxxxx****

"**She WHAT?" Captain Rivkos shrieked, when Napolipolita's absence from the Pallas Athena's bridge had been reported to her.**

**_Cranky old bat,_ the Assistant Engineer thought. She liked Aysha and would help her if she could.**

"**Where is she?"**

"**I'm sorry, Ma'am. I don't know. I haven't seen her since last night."**

**With an only half-suppressed exclamation of anger and frustration, Rivkos hit her communicator. Turning back around, she snapped, "Get out of here!" The Assistant Engineer was happy to oblige.**

**The connection was made. **

"**She's gone," Rivkos hissed.**

"**What do you mean, 'gone'?" replied Commander Maldekai.**

"**I mean AWOL, Commander. Absent Without Leave. Vanished. She didn't even leave word of her whereabouts with her second!"**

"**It's obvious that she's on to us," Magdiu Vipsania Parsua sighed. "Might I suggest the 'Big Guns'?"**

"**Don't talk in riddles, Eminenziou. What sort of deterrent do you have in mind?"**

"**A party of my Shakanar might put a crimp in her plans, don't you think?"**

_"_**_Yeung tae,_ Vipsa. Not bad," Maldekai complimented. **

**The three-way communication ended, leaving the three conspirators to turn to their respective underlings and give them a series of orders - the gist of which was to stop Aysheia Napolipolita from reaching the Homeworld, and by whatever means were necessary.**

****xxxxxxx****

"**Wake up and shake your fat butt, Pharsalus!" shouted the Division Leader of the Magdiu Veru's private squadron of Shakanar shock troops. She cracked her subordinate across the back of her shaggy head, not that it would have hurt the hard skull of a Shakanar. But what it did was get the woman's attention.**

"**What's the mission?"**

"**We're being sent out to blow away that Napolipolita. A mission that your old War College comrade Tarim Chitai would love!"**

"**Too bad they shipped her to Zeta II Reticuli."**

"**Is that even in the outer populated rim?" inquired a seven-foot tall turquoise-headed hulk named Ganj-darah. **

"**Right. They had to pop her into hypersleep. I hate when they do that," offered Tepe Gurun, an officer who proudly bore the scar of a Kirlian knife blade across her steroid-thickened cheek and right eyelid.**

**Pharsalus sneered at her. "How would you know, you useless burned-out cyclops? You've never been on a deep-space mission in your life." **

**Between an ordinary Fleet soldier and a Shakanar, this exchange would have brought an instant and bloody confrontation. Between Sisters, however, it was simply part of their interaction, like pit bulls at play. **

"**Too deep to grab her on Relay from here," Gurun fired back. "And if the Xram fried your worthless carcass tomorrow, I wouldn't come to the burial to piss on your grave because I hate waiting in long lines."**

**This little compliment led to a tangle between the two women which Division Leader Hattusas Parsuhanda ended with a couple of jolts with her portable taser. The two chastised soldiers responded with a string of swear words that would have led to courts-martial if spoken by the regular military. This was far beyond the espirit d'corps employed by graduates of the CygniCity Space Academy, without a doubt.**

"**Too bad," commented a navigation officer. "Chitai would have loved to grease that little bitch."**

"**She had plenty of chances, and blew them all," yet another Shakanar commented.**

"**Shut your freaking face, you pig. Who asked you?"**

**The exchange of oaths continued until even Division Leader Parsuhanda grew weary of it. "Quit screwing around and forget about Chitai. Time to lock and load. Contact Command and inform them. Be ready for dust-off in one hour."**

**As the others scrambled, Corporal Ganj-darah reached over to punch her com. This was necessary as Shakanar couldn't employ the use of brain waves - the standard Leptonian method of enabling a device - because theirs deviated so far from the norm that constructing alternative parameters didn't make economic sense to the Empire's technicians. This particular model of communication device had, in fact, extra-large push pads to accommodate Shakanar fingers. **

**She fired off the information to Command, and then whirled around in search of the biggest source of firepower she could lay her hands upon. **

**Corporal Ganj-darah had been so distracted by the joys inherent in this upcoming mission - and was so intent on locating that very special pulse cannon - that she hadn't even bothered to identify herself.**

**And neither had the soldier on the other end of the conversation, whose name was Deesha Dakina.**

**The com at Command Headquarters in Mur Sejanus sounded once again. Deesha responded at once, her heart thudding in her great chest in fear for her friend.**

**The Shakanar navigation officer spoke as if making the call was an unbearably tiresome task. "Here's the tracking information. Wake up, won't you?"**

**Dee – who had learned to defend herself, at her peril – fired back a series of curses that let the officer on Division Leader Hattusas Parsuhanda's vessel know who was the Alpha Female, at least for that particular exchange.**

"**Just got a com from that horse's ass Captain Rivkos. Her words were something like, why, Little Miss Napolipolita thought she could slip our leash so easily, blah blah blah - and that's why she'd placed a tracker in Napolipolita's traveling valise when she left the ship, blah blah blah." **

**Dee – no stranger to covert operations – frowned. Such a device was half the thickness of a human hair, and defied detection by regular instruments. To her regret, she hadn't left a device with her girlhood friend that could detect one of those.**

"**Who is that?" barked Captain Thorikos Potidaea, commanding officer of the woman once known as Deesha Akana Dakina. Shakanar used numbers - or epithets, depending on their mood - to identify one another.**

**_Nosy cow,_ Deesha thought. She straightened. "New orders for one of our Kypris-class stealth vessels." **

"**Excellent," Potidaea responded. **

**Keeping her face as carefully composed as always, Dee cleared her throat. She was still not used to the deep voice she'd developed, and it always bothered her to hear it emanating from her own lips. "Give Napolipolita's coordinates so that we can arrange Shakanar intercept before she reaches CygniCity."**

"**Ascension six minutes, twenty seconds; declination minus thirty-nine degrees, three seconds."**

"**Do you have it nailed?" Captain Potidaea asked Dee.**

"**Yes, Ma'am."**

"**Then, snap to it!"**

**Deesha Dakina began making the arrangements necessary that would send her best friend into a deadly trap.**

**_Over my dead body,_ she thought, making sure that her coarse features betrayed no emotion.**

****xxxxxxx****

**It was the Terran equivalent of around ten o'clock at night at Command Headquarters. The night-watch crewmembers were just now relieving their Shakanar Sisters, who had been doing their jobs - with customary grim Shakanar determination - all day and well into the evening.**

**It was a calm, clear night. The twin suns had slipped behind the high plateau of Mur Sejanus, leaving in their place a black mat covered with glittering stars. Their clear beauty was untainted by the haze of atmospheric pollutants; Cygnans had never desecrated their own planet. As a race that consisted more of an attitude than any particular ethnic group, they reverenced nature and considered their planet as yet another manifestation of The Mother. Their Madere Magnia gave nourishment, sustenance, and solidity to their lives, and to defile her was an abomination - a tiduspuk - "against the Ways".**

**The Sea of Stars above was lost on Helle Thesprotia, a strapping Shakanar trooper who had recently seen a lot of action on the frontier. Sitting behind a desk seemed just the thing after six months of blasting Xram pods out of the heavens and into the hell their rotten little souls well deserved.**

**Ready to relax a bit, she entered Command Communications, ready to relieve Deesha. She scanned the room and arched a bushy eyebrow. It wasn't like Deesha to be away from her post. Scratching her shaggy head, Thesprotia then shouted to nobody in particular, "Where the Avernus is DC 138621S113?"**

**DC 138621S113 –- formerly known as Deesha Akana Dakina - had been hoping against hope that her absence wouldn't be discovered until she was well on her way. She knew that she was committing suicide, as there were strict and uncompromising rules about Shakanar roaming free and on their own on the Homeworld. She and her Sisters were isolated - restricted to Mur Sejanus - and forbidden to leave there unless they were under direct orders. These had to come from the Shakanar Council, the Command Structure, or the Palace itself.**

**To be caught roaming the Homeworld free and without orders meant death - death both swift and sure.**

**But none of that mattered to Deesha. Her being on the receiving end of the communication sealing her old friend's fate was bad enough, but her fear and urgency had been compounded when she'd also overheard a number of Sisters discussing the wonderful trap being set for Koretash and Napolipolita at the CygniCity Spaceport.**

**Dee knew what she had to do, even if it meant that she would soon be dead. The only problem she faced was how she would arrive in CygniCity in time, especially with the lead Napolipolita and the Admiral had on her.**

**The answer to her problem came in the form of a Kez-ar reconnaissance ship. The Kez-ar Class ("Falcon's Eye") vessel was a one-woman, long-range ship built for speed and stealth, not combat. It was of flimsy construction and, most important of all, totally unarmed. Its speed was its only means of defense, and thus its only protection. Deesha had left five of the Shakanar Command Brigade's best officers nursing sore jaws and the mother of all headaches behind her after she'd stolen an unattended Panz-cenar ("Swift Wing"), the newest and fastest of the Kez-ar Class scout ships.**

**As Deesha made her way though the limitless ocean of stars, she didn't bother to worry about the penalty for "borrowing" a ship. "After all," she thought, "they can only kill me once, and I'm already dead the moment I step outside this ship. The very worst they can do to me is put me in a pain booth for two or three days before my execution!" Deesha** **laughed grimly as she said to herself, "Can't be any worse than trying to fly this thing."**

**She did her best to ignore the cramps as her head and shoulders rubbed against the confines of the too-small cockpit, thinking, "These damn ships were never meant to be flown by Shakanar - even undersized ones like me!"**

****xxxxxxx****

**While these distracted thoughts occupied Dee's mind, the Shakanar in tracing her steps as well as the course of Koretash's craft had wasted no time. And already lying in wait in the Spaceport itself was a Shakanar captain with her shock troopers, just now receiving a report from her second-in-command.**

**"The ship with the Admiral and the drunk should arrive in the next half hour, Captain!"**

**"Excellent!" she replied. "But remember to tell your troops not to fire until Koretash and Napolipolita leave the ship and reach those crates of freight. Then open up, and we'll have them in a crossfire!"**

**The second licked her lips in the knowledge that her Sisters would soon be taking another life. However, her Captain soon interrupted her dreams of mayhem.**

**"Remember to warn your troops - if any one of them fires too soon, I will wear their brainpans as hats!"**

**The Shakanar captain had set her trap well. She would have preferred to use her sword instead of her blaster; after all, cold steel was much more personal and pleasurable, not to mention more painful, for her victim. However, the Council of Sisters had preferred a swift sure kill for Napolipolita, and a quick and quiet seizure of Admiral Koretash. In other words, while the butchery offered by a sword would have satisfied her bloodlust, those in charge wanted results, and not art. Besides, they cared next to nothing for true Shakanar pleasures.**

**xxxxxxx**

**Napolipolita and the Admiral landed in the section of the CygniCity Spaceport reserved for V I P's and high-ranking personnel. They quickly left the private craft and began making their way across the tarmac, heading for the main building.**

**Napolipolita wasn't sure if it was a wayward sound, or the triggering of a simple warrior's instinct. Whatever the reason, she took hold of her mother's old friend and pulled her down between two crates of Cygnan liquor bound for the thirsty soldiers of the Outer Rim.**

**As the Shakanar opened fire, the contents of the crates were smashed, and began making a mess on the loading dock. The irony wasn't lost on Chief Engineer Napolipolita.**

**As Koretash and Napolipolita drew their weapons and returned fire, the gray- haired Admiral smiled broadly as she said, "This brings back memories! Just like old times, with your mother at my side, smelling of booze and fighting like mad!"**

**It was then that Napolipolita realized that the aged hero of the Battle of Crab Nebula was enjoying herself almost as much as she herself was terrified.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Ambush

**CHAPTER 8: THE AMBUSH**

"**Don't hit the Admiral, you damn fool!" the Shakanar captain hissed to her troops now surrounding the pair, still hunkered down among the crates. "You can kill that skinny-shanks sot if you like, but we are under strict orders only to keep the Admiral from reaching the Palace! Under no circumstances is Koretash to be killed!"**

**"You must be joking!" one of them grumbled, spraying the crates with pulse gun fire, halfway acting like she hadn't heard. Another name added to her Butcher's Bill sounded just right.**

**"Mind your orders, and do your job!" the Captain shrieked in her oddly male-sounding voice.**

**Both of the Space Navy women understood that they were surrounded. Napolipolita realized exactly why they'd been ambushed, and further realized that she was honor-bound to save her Admiral if she could, even at the cost of her own life.**

**Her eyes darted around her as the explosions came closer. Suddenly, she shouted, "Aha!" Grabbing Koretash unceremoniously by the sleeve and dragging her along, Aysha dropped flat on the ground and wriggled through several overturned crates and their contents, shards of glass tearing her clothing and lacerating her belly. "This way!" she shouted, over the eerie shriek-hiss of the Shakanar weapons. Soon, both women disappeared into the wreckage, clawing through it as they went.**

**"What made you think of this?" Koretash panted, sliding along on a film of alcohol and broken bottles.**

**"I feel comfortable in tight places," Napolipolita replied.**

**Within seconds, the last shattered crate had been flung away and the portal entrance was in clear sight.**

**Napolipolita was the first to reach the portal entrance, with the Admiral providing cover fire. Napolipolita punched in her code, which should have opened the portal door. When it failed, she tried again - with the same results. It was just then that Koretash yelled out, "Well, girl - what's taking so long?"**

**"They have the portal doors locked down, Admiral," Napolipolita yelled over the high-pitched scream of blaster fire.**

**"Take my place, girl, while I try my own priority code!"**

**Doing as she was told, Aysha rolled over to where Koretash was holding off the Shakanar murder squad with her sidearm. Napolipolita took up the fight as the Admiral worked on the door. As Koretash worked, Napolipolita managed to bring down two of the more foolish Shakanar, who had made a mad rush at her, with headshots. Napolipolita began shooting at the large shaggy heads of her foes, because she had learned very quickly that Shakanar were very hard to kill with simple body shots.**

**As another barrage of blaster fire erupted around them both, Koretash rejoined the daughter of her old friend behind their splintery barricade. "I take it your code doesn't work any longer, either," yelled Napolipolita over the sound of gunfire.**

**"Oh it works fine, all right. And by the way, so did yours. But someone had the inspiration to weld the damned door shut!" answered Koretash. "Not very sophisticated, but very effective. Something only a Shakanar would think of doing."**

**Napolipolita wasn't sure whether the Admiral was angry at the trick, or admired the mind that had thought of it. In any case, Napolipolita had other worries as she asked, "How are you set for power cells?"**

**"I'm working on my last one!"**

**"Me too," Napolipolita added sadly. "Oh Holy Mother – "**

**Both women realized what they would both be facing as soon as they ran out of energy for their sidearms, and Admiral Koretash didn't have to explain it to her young companion. Instead, the older woman placed her hand on Napolipolita's shoulder and told her, "I have served two Queens and my Nation, for over fifty years. I have seen too many of my friends die, your mother among them. I find myself measuring the passing years by the battles I've fought. So many battles, in fact, that even I can't remember them all - and in every one of them, I'm not too proud to admit that I have known fear. But what I had come to fear most recently was that I would drop dead behind that damn desk someday!"**

**"Not much chance of that happening now, Admiral," Napolipolita replied with a grin.**

**The old warrior returned the smile and answered, "This is the only way an old warhorse like myself should die - with a weapon in my hand, facing a determined enemy, and with a brave and good companion at my side!" She then added, "I only wish it didn't have to be someone as young as you are, Napolipolita."**

**"I could think of worse ways to go out, Admiral - one of them being facedown in the gutter with a bellyful of cheap gin!"**

**Koretash smiled and offered her hand to the young officer. As Napolipolita took it, she said, "I can't think of someone who I'd rather have accompanying me to the Summerland than you, Admiral. The only thing I regret is leaving my young daughters behind without a mother."**

**"If they're as brave as their grandmother and mother, they will do just fine!"**

**Koretash hugged the young woman close and kissed her head, telling her that she was a good girl. This nearly broke Napolipolita's heart.**

**The musings of these two brave women were interrupted by the sight of the Shakanar beginning to set up their heavy weaponry behind one of the barriers. Both soldiers knew at that moment that their time had come; both were prepared to face it together, and bravely.**

****xxxxxxx****

**From the sky above the CygniCity Spaceport, a tiny ship came out of low orbit. **

**Its pilot made a quick pass over as the battle was being played out below her. Deesha's sharp eyes saw her friend and someone in an Admiral's uniform holding off a squad of her Sister Shakanar. A second pass allowed Dee to notice that some of them were setting up a cadre of AZ-99 pulse guns. Only now did Deesha miss having weapons on her tiny craft. One pass armed, and she would have taken out the whole squad who were about to kill her childhood friend. Deesha had no weapons, but she did have brains, and most of all – she had courage, and plenty to spare.**

**Tightening the belts of her safety harness, Deesha cut back on her power and dove towards the tarmac, aiming her flimsy craft at the Shakanar weapons barricade. She felt the ship slam into the ground and heard the scream of twisting metal. A cascade of sparks surrounded the cockpit of the tiny ship, only ending when Deesha felt a sudden jolt as her ship took out the barricade. Her Sister Shakanar dove for cover in as many different directions as there were Shakanar.**

**When the small scout ship – now far worse for the wear - came to a sudden halt, Deesha was able to use her Shakanar-induced strength to rip open its canopy. She tried to get up, but the same safety harness that had saved her a moment ago had now entrapped her. The release mechanism had been damaged by the impact, and she was caught in the now-burning scout ship.**

**"It's Deesha!" shouted Napolipolita. Ripping away her dark shades, she instantly saw that her safety harness trapped her friend. Without a word or a moment of hesitation, Napolipolita tossed her handgun to her companion and jumped up, even as Shakanar blaster fire shrieked past her ears. She leaped over the barricade which she and the Admiral had been sharing and dashed towards her friend as Koreas blasted away with her own and with Napolipolita's sidearms. A blue-hot pain ripped through her shoulder as one of the energy beams reached its mark. No matter; she'd felt worse in her day. **

**Still running at full speed as she withdrew her mother's razor-sharp broadsword, Napolipolita shrieked "Oh Great Cybele! Guide my hand!" Counting upon all the skill she'd learned at her mother's knee, she brought down a blade forged to fracture Xram skulls in a great arc. **

**With the skill taught to her by her mother and endless hours of practice, Napolipolita used it to save a life this time, instead of taking one. Two swift slashes, and Deesha was free from the burning wreck. She was none the worse for wear, with nothing more than a slight tear in her brand-new Shakanar uniform from the sword's sharp point to show for it.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Soon three people were behind the dubious safety of the barrier. The sound of pulse gun fire suddenly stopped as the Shakanar regrouped around them. **

**Taking advantage of the quiet, Napolipolita said, "Admiral Koretash, I'd like you to meet my friend Deesha."**

**Koretash said, "I knew that all Shakanar were crazy, but I never knew just how crazy - or brave – one could be. To use her own ship as a battering ram!"**

**"That's because she really isn't Shakanar, Admiral," said Napolipolita. "Because only a friend, not one of those hideous thugs, would risk her life for a friend!" **

**"And you for her," added Koretash, remembering Napolipolita's headlong dash to free Deesha from the wreckage. She then did something totally unexpected, and offered her hand to the same Shakanar she'd denounced to her best friend's daughter only a few short days ago. **

**Deesha was flabbergasted that a serving line officer - let alone a Grand Admiral - would offer her hand to one of the hated Shakanar. It was with a shaking hand that Deesha took the offered hand in her own. **

**As they shook hands, Koretash told her, "It's good to finally meet the Shakanar for whom this young fool was so willing to throw away her career - and now her life. It's good to know she was not mistaken." **

**"Thank you, Admiral," was the only thing Deesha could think to say.**

**Koretash added, "Too bad you joined us just to die!" She then noticed Aysha's arm, and before she had the chance to open her mouth, Napolipolita shook her head firmly as if to say "don't fuss over me and treat me like a child." Suddenly, the cacophony of pulse gun fire began again, causing the women to flinch. **

**"Why haven't you use the portal to enter the City?" hollered Dee.**

**"They welded the door shut," yelled Napolipolita over the din of battle.**

**"Let me see what I can do!" shouted Dee as she crawled over to the portal door. After a few moments, she shouted for her compatriots to cover their ears. She dove for cover milliseconds before an explosion rocked the area. **

**After the rain of debris had abated and they had regained their wits, Koretash gasped, "What happened?"**

**"I placed my sidearm on the hinge and then set it for overload," answered Deesha.**

**The Admiral laughed out loud and told her, "It was a good try. Too bad it failed!" **

**"Not totally, Your Clemency," yelled Deesha as she began ramming her broad shoulder repeatedly into the damaged door. As shots and gunfire landed all around her, Deesha grunted and strained as she used every ounce of both her artificially-enhanced and her natural strength and size to knock the door off its hinges. Then – just as her Shakanar Sisters had begun to slowly advance – the big woman screamed, "I'm through!"**

**"Good girl!" yelled Koretash. Turning to Napolipolita, she shouted, "Follow your large friend's lead! Set your own handgun on overload and toss it at our little friends. Sidearms will do us no good within the City limits, anyway." Taking her own advice, Koretash tossed her own weapon at the advancing column of monstrous women. Following her lead, Napolipolita did likewise. **

**The few moments this bought them allowed the Admiral to punch in her priority code. Soon, the three women were gone, heading for the Palace of Queen Zazen'lda the First.**

****xxxxxxx****

**Princess E-ko had been standing in the courtyard, using a model Kirlian for target practice, when Grand Admiral Zenobia Atira Koretash came barreling through with two ragged troopers pounding along behind her. Past the Princess they flew, causing the katiphora blossoms to tremble on their stems.**

"**Hey, watch the flowers, Admiral _Va'akensplootz!_" E-ko shrieked. **

**The Admiral had, in fact, already been in contact with Captain Buyabah of the Palace Guard, who had immediately gave them clearance for a Royal audience, and a fast one at that. Still racing as they entered the Hall of the Topaz Throne, the three dirty and battered women nearly smacked into the Royal Person herself, who jumped back half a foot, and just in time. **

**They immediately fell to their knees, and shouted, _"Ra-ga-na - li! Ra-ga-na - li Zazen'lda!"_**

"**Oh, tish tosh!" Zazen'lda said, waving her hands like flower petals. "We don't have time for the formalities. I understand your urgent business has something to do with my lost child. Out with it!" The Queen gestured them to follow her to a table that had been carved out of a single boulder-sized mass of rose quartz. "Servant! Bring us wine."**

**At this, Napolipolita's eyes widened. She could die for a drink. And just as quickly, both Deesha and Koretash eyed her, then each other. "That won't be necessary, Your Majesty," said the Grand Admiral, seating herself after the Queen. "We've just escaped a Shakanar ambush, ordered – I suspect – by either Captain Rivkos of the Egota Pallas Athena, or the Magdiu Veru.**

"**No, that's not right," Aysha spat, angered that the wine her soul had so hungered for would be denied her. "Starship captains have no jurisdiction over Shakanar shock troops!"**

"**You're right, Third Officer," Admiral Koretash replied, accepting the rebuke as just punishment for keeping an exhausted and battered alcoholic from her next drink. "That means Vipsania Parsua, head of the Magdiu. But why?"**

**Napolipolita then realized that Zazen'lda had no idea what the Admiral was talking about, and in a few short sentences told her of the incredible television transmission she'd intercepted and the substance of the plot against her. **

"**Your Majesty," Aysha said, bowing her head, her hand on her breast in the traditional Cygnan gesture of honorable submission. "I think I've found your little girl."**

**For a long few moments, Zazen'lda's delicate chin trembled, and tears welled up in her blue eyes. All turned away, allowing the Queen the privacy to shed her Royal tears. **

**A few minutes more passed. Then suddenly, and without a word, the Queen stood, activating her communications device with thought patterns far less serene than usual. **

"**Although I am a Pathfollower, I am still the Ruler of Thirty-Three Galaxies. If I demand an answer of Vipsania Parsua or Commander Maldekai or any common soldier of the Realm, I damn well expect to get one."**

****xxxxxxx****

**The Queen did get her answer, as it happened. Whether it was satisfactory or not was a question that only she could answer.**

**Predictably, Commander Itisia Maldekai denied any knowledge or involvement in the conspiracy, and Zazen'lda had no way to dispute her claim. Her Majesty thanked her for her time (which should have made any Cygnan soldier's blood run cold) and filed the suspicious incident away for future reference. **

**Chief Priestess Vipsania Parsua also denied involvement. Instead of discussing it further, Queen Zazen'lda ordered Grand Admiral Sempra Vigilantia to keep an eye on her. As a member of the Pathfollower Council of Fifteen, Vigilantia certainly was of equal status as spiritual leader, and the Queen already knew whom she would trust in a pinch.**

**The only conspirator who was unable to sleaze her way out of the situation was poor Captain Rivkos, whose little gaffe led to her immediate demotion to Fighter Pilot. She was ordered to serve a term of duty at the Kartus Atrio scrap metal reclamation factory on Arcturus V – at the far edge of the Outer Rim. She promptly went AWOL, and nobody troubled herself to bother looking for her. **

**With that unpleasant business taken care of, and elated by Napolipolita's discovery, the Queen ordered a Grand Procession, to be followed by what Terrans would call a series of Olympic games. **


	9. Chapter 9: Triumph

**CHAPTER 9: TRIUMPH**

**The binary star that warmed all life forms on Alpha Cygni shone in a clear azure sky. The Queen sat on her Topaz Throne (the portable one) with her three daughters. Grand Admiral Koretash was seated to her right, and Aysha sat to her left.**

"**Isn't this simply marvelous?" Zazen'lda trilled, the twin suns' bright light making her silver-white hair sparkle. Both soldiers nodded, and meant it. Across the center of the vast courtyard in front of the Palace marched Leptonians from all parts of the Realm. **

**Marching first from the hot climes of equatorial Alpha Cygni came the Adyrmachidae. These women wore bronze rings on their legs; they let their hair grow long and wore it in what Terrans would call long cornrows, twisted into elaborate knot designs. These women were primarily starship builders; the inventors and designers of the first Egota-class ship hailed from their tribe. They were gorgeously dressed in short gowns of airy glistening fabric, and carried before them their orange and silver banner which bore images of every major starship in Her Majesty's Space Navy. **

**Behind the Adyrmachidae marched the Gilligammae, who inhabited the Lepton Kingdom westward as far as the Island of Aphrodisias. Silphium – an indigenous grain that sustained millions within the Tauka Banesh Star System - grew plentifully in their vast fields, which extended from the Island of Platea on the one side to the mouth of the Sorties on the other. The clothing of the Gilligammae were brown – like the good soil which made their livelihood possible – and they wore golden stalks of silphium woven through their elaborately-curled hair. The banner they proudly bore had a similar theme.**

**The Asbystae –the equestriennes of the Lepton Kingdom – came from the land that adjoined the Gilligammae upon the west. They drove their four-horse chariots in front of them. Accompanying them were members of the little tribe of the Cabalians, who hailed from Tauchira Kush, the regional capital with its lush grazing lands. Their banners were cerulean blue and lemon yellow, respectively. **

**The Nasamonians, a tribe of mystics, were the western neighbors of the Cabalians. These blue-skinned women with their odd silvery eyes sustained the ancient practice of augury. To keep their clairvoyant powers clear, they avoided nearly all society and used no weapons of war. They eschewed ornamentation and so had no banner, but walked barefoot and proud in the grand procession. "I am honored that you should come before me," Queen Zazen'lda cried to them, knowing full well that it took a Royal Edict to force them to leave their homeland.**

**Five hundred brown-skinned women beating drums followed them; these were the Macea, who kept the music of the Lepton Kingdom alive. They raised their voices in praise to the Mother as they marched in perfect formation. Queen Zazen'lda – being a Pathfollower – did not join them, but nodded tolerantly as they saluted her. **

**Koretash had a hard time keeping her booted foot from tapping out the rhythm as they passed. She was afraid that the Queen might not think it dignified for a Grand Admiral.**

**Aysha giggled as she watched the Gindanes pass next, who wore anklets of leather on their legs. Each lover that a woman of this tribe had customarily gave her one; and she who could show the most was the best esteemed in that less cultured part of the Realm. "Shameful," whispered Princess E-ko, who then joined Napolipolita in a giggling fit that only Grand Admiral Koretash's stern look could silence.**

**The next tribe who joined in the celebration of the location of the Lost Princess was the Auseans. The Ausean maidens had held a feast in honor of Atana Potnia since the dim beginning of time, and with it they put Terran Amazons to shame. To honor her, they formed two warring sides and fought one another with stones and clubs. Harsh as the windblown land from which they came, these women believed that if any of their number died of the wounds they received, that such were false maidens. It surprised no one that most of these women were redheads. Now dressed in full battle armor, the banner they bore depicted the labrys – the double axe – the sacred symbol of rebirth and matriarchal authority. **

**The Queen was excited to see the lovely Atarantians, who lived at the base of Mt. Zitu, a peak so lofty that the top could rarely be seen because the clouds never cleared away. Its summit bore the brunt of the confluence of three whirling weather systems, and their daughters' Rites of Passage included a climb to its top. They called their mountain "the Pillar of Heaven", and avoided eating animal flesh. It was also said that they never dreamed. Today they honored their Queen by wearing their brilliantly striped garments, fringed at their edges, and bore a banner bearing the image of their sacred mountain. **

**The Queen of Thirty-three Galaxies stood, and the crowd of forty thousand souls shouted "Ra-ga-na - li! Ra-ga-na-li Zazen'lda!" She lifted her hand, and they grew silent. **

****xxxxxxx****

"**Today is a great day of celebration. Due to the devotion and honesty of two of my soldiers, I now have hope that my daughter – the Lost Princess – may still be alive. Cry out your joy to Grand Admiral Koretash, for she is honorable and worthy of your praise!"**

**She motioned the woman to stand; taken aback, Koretash rubbed her nose and straightened the hem of her military tunic. Zazen'lda took a wreath of katiphora blossoms from her daughter D-ko, and put them round the embarrassed old soldier's neck. The cheering nearly deafened her as forty thousand voices echoed and bounced from the canyon walls surrounding the Palace grounds, again and again. **

"**And I ask your praise today for one of Our Kingdom's own heroines. As a young girl, she survived the attack that began the Tenth and Eleventh Kirlian Wars. We mourn her mother, the Great Commander Alia Napolipolita – " Here, the crowd drowned out her sweet voice with their cheers " – but thank her only child today for yet another great deed." The Queen lowered her hand and waited for the vast sea of faces to become calm once again. "The mission to search the Sea of Stars for my lost daughter has become a rescue mission. Aysheia Lisia Napolipolita, Chief Engineer of my Egota battle cruiser Pallas Athena, has brought further glory to her family name by bringing me irrefutable proof that the Princess may yet live!"**

**The silence burst forth into cheers, and then into an ancient chant that every Cygnan knew from her cradle, led by the lovely voices of members of the Macea Tribe. Each woman's face was beautiful; every heart was full. They held hands, forty thousand strong, and chanted:**

_**Oh, All-knowing and Ancient One, I am ready to grow **_

_**May the Spirit of Fire ignite my vision**_

_**May the Energy of the Waters flood over me**_

_**May the Clarity of the Winds fill my knowing**_

_**May the Solidity of the Swan-Place ground and center me!**_

_**Fill my spirit with courage**_

_**Fill my heart with understanding**_

_**Fill my mind with tenacity and clear vision**_

_**Fill my being with kindness, compassion, and joy!**_

**Forty thousand Leptonians cheered for Napolipolita, the poor little girl whom life had treated so cruelly. She could not help her tears from flowing; she hung her head until the Queen reached over and took her hand.**

"**I have asked Grand Admiral Koretash to lead this rescue mission. But because she honors you as I do, she now begs you – as do I - to take on this task. I appoint you Captain of the Pallas Athena. May the Shotosarikan bless your valiant heart, and protect you from all adversity!" The Queen now took a katiphora wreath from Princess F-ko and put it round Napolipolita's neck. With kindly hands, she lifted up her long green hair and arranged it over the wreath, then kissed her cheek.**

"**Don't cry, daughter of my old friend," said Grand Admiral Koretash. "Your mother would wish you to be joyful today, and to leave the pain of the past behind you. I have arranged for your friend Deesha to be assigned to you in this mission. She is still Shakanar – make no mistake on that score – but I believe that both her investigation skills and her love for you will help bring our Little Princess home."**

"**So shall it be written," added Queen Zazen'lda in her voice, which sounded like little silver bells. "So shall it be done."?**

**Four days later, the Pallas Athena took to the skies, loaded with a full complement of twelve thousand seasoned troops and cadets. This number would increase, as the starship would be graced by the births of babies during the time it would take to locate the Royal Heir. **

**Its Captain – Napolipolita now, instead of Rivkos – would inspire the best in her soldiers, and they would come to chant her name as their battle cry.**

**It was all the more unfortunate, then, that Chief Priestess Vipsania Parsua – member of the Magdiu Veru and spiritual leader of the Great Goddess faith to which Aysha belonged – had sent a farewell gift of fifteen cases of their renowned vintage wine called Sugato. It bore her personal best wishes to Captain Napolipolita, along with the hope that she would enjoy her gift during her long journey to Earth.**

**THE END**


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